tihvaxy  of  Che  trheolojical  ^tminaxy 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 

The  Estate  of  the 
Rev.  John  B,  Wiedinger 


CONCERNING  THE  CHRIST 


CONCERNING    THE 
CHRIST 


BY 


J.   D.  WEEMAN,   M.A. 

AUTHOR  OF  "LIFE  ON  THE  UPLANDS" 


NEW    YORK 

A.    C.    ARMSTRONG    AND    SON 

3  &  5  WEST  EIGHTEENTH  ST 

1908 


TO 

THE   MANY  FEIENDS 

ON  BOTH   SIDES   OF   THE   ATLANTIC 

WHO  SO  GENEROUSLY    EXPEESSED  APPEECIATION  OF 

MY  EAELIER  BOOK,   "LIFE   ON  THE  UPLANDS," 

I   GRATEFULLY  DEDICATE 

THIS   VOLUME 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

FAOa 
CHRIST   IN   THE   MANGER  .  .  .1 

"And  this  ig  the  sign  unto  you;  ye  shall 
find  a  babe  wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes,  and 
lying  in  a  manger." — Luke  ii.  12. 


CHAPTER  II 
Christ's  piRer  eeoord-ed  words        .  .15 

"  How  is  it  that  ye  sought  me  ?  Wist  ye 
not  that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's 
business  ?  " — Luke  ii.  49. 


CHAPTER  III 
CHRIST  AT    THE   JORDAN  .  ,  .33 

"  Then  cometh  Jesus  from  Galilee  to  Jordan 
unto  John,  to  be  baptized  of  him. 

But  John  would  have  hindered  him,  saying, 

I  have  need  to  be  baptized  of  thee,  and  comest 

thou  to  me  ? 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

PAGK 

But  Jesus  answering  said  unto  him,  Suffer  it 
to  be  BO  now  :  for  thus  it  becometh  us  to  fulfil 
all  righteousness.    Then  he  suffered  him. 

And  Jesus,  when  he  was  baptized,  went  up 
straightway  from  the  water :  and  lo,  the 
heavens  were  opened  imto  him,  and  he  saw 
the  Spirit  of  God  descending  as  a  d">ve,  and 
coming  upon  him :  and,  lo,  a  voice  out  of  the 
heavens,  saying,  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in 
whom  I  am  well  pleased." — Matthew  iii.  13-17. 


CHAPTER  IV 
CHRIST  IN   THE   WILDERNESS        .  .  .47 

"  Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  Spirit  into 
the  wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil." — 
Matthew  iv.  1. 


CHAPTER  V 
CHRIST  AT  THE   WEDDING   FEAST   IN   OANA  .      63 

'♦  This  beginning  of  his  signs  did  Jesus  in 
Cana  of  Galilee,  and  manifested  his  glory." — 
John  11.  11. 

CHAPTER  VI 
CHRIST  IN  THE   SYNAGOGftFE   OF  NAZARETH  .      77 

"And  he  came  to  Nazareth,  where  he  had 
been  brought  up :  and  he  entered,  as  his 
custom  was,  into  the  synagogue  on  the  sabbath 
day,  and  stood  up  to  read." — Luke  iv.  16. 


CONTENTS  IX 

CHAPTER    Vn 

page: 
CHRIST  CLEANSING  THE   TEMPLE  .  ,      95 

"  And  the  Passover  of  the  Jews  was  at  hand, 
and  Jesus  went  up  to  Jerusalem.  And  he 
found  in  the  temple  those  that  sold  oxen  and 
sheep  and  doves,  and  the  changers  of  money 
sitting :  and  he  made  a  scourge  of  cords,  and 
cast  all  out  of  the  temple,  both  the  sheep  and 
the  oxen;  and  he  poured  out  the  changers' 
money,  and  overthrew  their  tables;  and  to 
them  that  sold  doves  he  said,  Take  these  things 
hence;  make  not  my  Father's  house  a  house 
of  merchandise.  His  disciples  remembered 
that  it  was  written.  The  zeal  of  thine  house 
shall  eat  me  up.  The  Jews  therefore  answered 
and  said  unto  him,  What  sign  shewest  thou 
unto  us,  seeing  that  thou  doest  these  things  ? 
Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  them,  Destroy 
this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up. 
The  Jews  therefore  said.  Forty  and  six  years 
was  tlis  temple  in  building,  and  wilt  thou  raise 
it  up  iu  three  days  ?  But  he  spake  of  the 
temple  of  his  body.  When  therefore  he  was 
raised  from  the  dead,  his  disciples  remembered 
that  he  spake  this;  and  they  believed  the 
scripture,  aaad  the  word  which  Jesus  had 
said."— John  ii.  13-22. 

CHAPTER    VIII 

CHRIST  AT  Jacob's  well         .  ,  .  109 

"So  he  cometh  to  a  city  of  Samaria,  called 
Sychar,  near  to  the  parcel  of  ground  that  Jacob 
gave  to  his  son  Joseph :  and  Jacob's  well  was 


CONTENTS 

FA6B 

there.  Jesus  therefore,  being  wearied  with  his 
journey,  sat  thus  by  the  well.  It  was  about 
the  sixth  hour.  There  cometh  a  woman  of 
Samaria  to  draw  water." — John  iv.  5-1, 


CHAPTER  IX 

CHRIST  ON  THE  MOUNT  OP  BEATITUDES       .  123 

"Every  one  therefore  which  heareth  these 
words  of  mine,  and  doeth  them,  shall  be  likened 
unto  a  wise  man  which  built  his  house  upon  the 
rock:  and  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods 
came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that 
house  ;  and  it  fell  not :  for  it  was  founded  upon 
the  rock.  And  every  one  that  heareth  these 
words  of  mine  and  doeth  them  not,  shall  be 
likened  unto  a  fooUsh  man  which  built  his 
house  upon  the  sand :  and  the  rain  descended, 
and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and 
smote  upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell :  and  great 
was  the  fall  thereof." — Matthew  vii.  24-27. 


CHAPTER   X 
CHRIST   BY  THE   SEA  OP   GALILEE  ,  .   139 

"  On  that  day  went  Jesus  out  of  the  house, 
and  sat  by  the  seaside.  And  there  were 
gathered  unto  Him  great  multitudes,  so  that 
he  entered  into  a  boat  and  sat ;  and  all  the 
multitude  stood  on  the  beach.  And  he  spake 
to   them   many  things    in   parables,    saying, 


CONTENTS  xi 

FAOB 

Behold   the    sower    went    forth   to    sow."  — 
Matthew  xiii.  1-3. 


CHAPTER  XI 
CHRIST  BY   THE    SEA   OF   GALILEE  {continued)     .    155 

"  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  treasure 
hid  in  a  field :  the  which  when  a  man  hath 
found,  he  hideth,  and  for  joy  thereof  goeth  and 
selleth  all  that  he  hath,  and  buyeth  that  field. 

Again,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  a 
merchantman  seeking  goodly  pearls :  who,  when 
he  hath  found  one  pearl  of  great  price,  went 
and  sold  all  that  he  had,  and  bought  it." — 
Matthew  xiii.  44-46. 


CHAPTER   XII 
CHEIST   CONCERNING   THINGS   LOST  .  .   173 

"  And  he  spake  unto  them  this  parable  saying, 
What  man  of  you  having  an  hundred  sheep  . . . 
Or  what  woman  having  ten  pieces  of  silver  .  .  . 
A  certain  man  had  two  sons.  .  . ." 

Luke  xv.  3,  4,  8,  11. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
CHRIST  AT   THE   FEAST   OP   TABERNACLES  .    191 

"  Now  on  the  last  day,  the  great  day  of  the 
feast,  Jesus  stood  and  cried,  saying.  If  any  man 
thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me,  and  drink."— 
John  vii.  37. 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XIV 

FAOB 
CHKIST  IN   THE   HOME   AT  BETHANY         '.  .   207 

"  Now  Jesus  loved  Martha,  and  her  sister, 
and  Lazarus." — John  xi.  5. 

CHAPTER  XV 
CHRIST  ON   THE   MOUNT  OF   TRANSFIGUEATION    .    227 

•'  And  he  was  transfigured  before  them :  and 
his  face  did  shine  as  the  sun,  and  his  garments 
became  white  as  the  light." — Matthew  xvii.  2. 


CHRIST  IN   THE   MANGER 


"  And  this  is  the  sign  unto  you  ;  ye  shall  find  a  babe 
wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes,  and  lying  in  a  manger." 
— Luke  ii.  12. 


CHAPTER   I 

CHRIST    IN    THE    MANGER 

1. 

The  Babe  in  the  Manger  is  the  Sign  of  the 
Spiritual  Primacy  of  Childhood. 

THE  Old  Testament  opens  with  the 
picture  of  a  child-man  in  a  garden ; 
the  New  Testament  opens  with  the  picture 
of  a  man-child  in  a  manger.  Around  the 
figure  of  the  child-man  Genesis  weaves  the 
story  of  Paradise  Lost ;  about  the  person 
of  the  man-child  the  Gospels  weave  the 
story  of  Paradise  Regained.  The  portrait 
of  the  child-man  is  dim  and  indistinct,  like 
some  faded  old  daguerreotype  in  which  the 
features  seem  to  be  obscured  by  a  clinging 
haze ;  the  portrait  of  the  man-child  is  as 
fresh  and  clear  as  if  but  yesterday  put 
upon  the  plate.  It  is  done  in  fast  colours. 
Neither  mist  nor  dust  are  permitted  to  rest 
upon  this  precious  triumph  of  an  artless 

3 


4  CHRIST  IN  THE  MANGER 

art.  Every  morning  the  keepers  of  this 
treasure  breathe  upon  it  with  their  warm 
desires  and  burnish  it  with  the  velvet  touch 
of  love.  Throughout  the  day  they  wear  it 
upon  their  hearts,  and  at  night  they  find 
their  cleansing  and  their  balm  in  con- 
templation of  its  sweet  and  heavenly 
grace. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  Christ  remains 
for  ever  the  Holy  Child.  His  spirit  never 
lost  the  freshness  of  life's  morning  hour. 
To  the  close  of  His  day  on  earth  He  was 
a  fragrant,  dewy  rose.  He  never  lost  the 
sense  of  the  recency  of  His  exodus  from 
the  bosom  of  the  Father.  He  never  lost 
His  childlike  trust  in  God.  He  did  not 
outgrow — 

"The  hour 
Of  glory  in  the  grass,  of  splendour  in  the  flower." 

Not  one  golden  line  ever  faded  out  of  His 
early  ideals.  No  cynicism  soured  Him,  no 
pessimism  chilled  Him.  He  carried  the 
child-spirit  with  Him  to  His  cross.  He 
carried  it  with  Him  to  the  throne  of 
glory.  It  is  by  the  child-spirit  He  rules 
in  the  heavenly  world.  In  the  midst  of 
the  throne  stands  a  Lamb.  The  last  words 
recorded  from  the  lips  of  the  crowned 
Redeemer  contain  the   affirmation   of   His 


CHRIST  IN  THE  MANGER  5 

perpetual  youth :  "  I,  Jesus,  am  the  bright 
and  morning  star." 

And  the  child-Christ  is  pre-eminently  the 
child's  Christ.  Nowhere  is  He  more  clearly 
reflected  than  in  the  unspoiled  eyes  of  the 
hearts  of  little  children.  The  child-spirit 
is  the  seer-spirit.  In  life's  cloudless  morn- 
ing some  peaks  stand  out  in  clearness  upon 
the  horizon  of  the  soul  which  all  too  often 
fade  from  view  as  day  advances.  When 
the  child-spirit  dies  a  light  goes  out  of  the 
soul  which  can  only  be  re-kindled  by  a  re- 
birth. God  became  a  little  child  that  He 
might  come  to  men,  and  men  must  become 
as  little  children  if  they  would  go  to  God. 
The  inner  secret  of  the  Christian  life  is  the 
carrying  of  the  picture  of  Christ  in  the 
heart.  And  the  children  are  its  best  cus- 
todians. The  guarantee  of  the  permanent 
enthralment  of  the  human  heart  to  Christ 
is  the  perpetual  renewal  of  the  child-life 
of  the  world.  There  are  times  when  our 
babies  teach  us  more  of  God  than  our 
Bibles  do.  It  is  an  open  question  whether 
the  pulpit  or  the  cradle  is  the  greater  re- 
ligious force.  The  cradle  speaks  upon  a 
narrower  range  of  themes  than  the  pulpit 
does,  but  its  testimony  is  more  consistent, 
more  constant,  and  more  convincing.  To 
reverent  parents  the  birth  of  children  into 


6  CHRIST  IN  THE  MANGER 

their  homes  is  a  sacramental  experience, 
bringing  them  into  immediate  relations 
with  the  unseen.  It  is  said  that  when 
Origen  was  an  infant  in  his  cradle  his 
father  would  sometimes  stoop  to  impress 
a  kiss  upon  his  breast  and  to  say,  "  This 
is  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  There  may 
be  something  more  than  poetic  fancy  or  a 
reminiscence  of  Platonic  philosophy  even 
in  Mrs.  Browning's  quaint  thought  of — 

"  The  murmur  of  that  outer  Infinite 
Which  unweaned  babies  smile  at  in  their  sleep 
When  wondered  at  for  smiling." 

Then,  too,  the  love  begotten  by  the  birth 
of  children  is  one  of  the  most  powerful 
instruments  of  soul  culture.  Parental  love 
is  the  most  unselfish,  the  most  sacrificial, 
the  most  spiritual  of  all  human  affections. 
Out  of  that,  as  we  know  it  in  ourselves  and 
in  those  who  have  fathered  and  mothered 
us,  we  best  know  God.  A  world  without 
a  child  would  be  a  world  with  its  windows 
closed  and  curtained  against  the  light  of 
heaven.  The  graves  of  the  children,  too, 
as  well  as  their  cradles,  link  us  with  the 
spirit-world. 

"  There's  a  narrow  ridge  in  the  graveyard 
Would  scarce  stay  a  child  in  its  race ; 
But  to  me  and  my  thought  it  is  wider 
Thau  the  star-sown  vagues  of  space." 


CHRIST  IN  THE  MANGER  7 

Most  men  are  religious  when  they  look 
upon  the  faces  of  their  own  dead  babes. 
The  materialism  which  at  other  times 
clings  so  closely  to  their  minds  and  in- 
fects them  with  doubts  of  God  and  immor- 
tality drops  away  from  them  in  this  hushed 
hour.  If  we  never  buried  any  but  the 
aged,  the  pilgrims  exhausted  by  the  long 
and  weary  road,  we  should  be  haunted  by 
a  darker  fear  that  death  may  be  the  end 
of  all.  But  that  these  fresh  young  spirits 
should  be  quenched  for  ever  seems  impos- 
sible of  belief. 

As  men  and  women  we  are  only  at  our 
best  when  nearest  to  the  simplicity  of  our 
childhood.  It  was  only  yesterday  that  Sir 
Henry  Campbell-Bannerman  was  carried 
to  his  burial  amidst  extraordinary  demon- 
strations of  a  nation's  love.  No  former 
premier  of  Great  Britain  had  won  the 
affection  of  all  political  parties  and  all 
classes  of  citizens  to  so  great  an  extent. 
Nor  had  any  former  leader  of  the  British 
House  of  Commons  ruled  it  with  such  con- 
summate ease.  Yet  he  was  not  a  brilliant 
man.  He  was  not  an  orator  nor  a  master 
of  statecraft.  While  great  men  bowed  to 
him  as  "  the  Father  of  the  House,"  in  their 
hearts  they  felt  towards  him  somewhat  as 
one  feels  towards  a  winsome  child.    It  was 


8  CHRIST  IN  THE  MANGER 

the  boy  in  him  that  they  loved  so  well. 
It  was  the  "  little  child "  that  led  them. 
They  saw  in  him  a  simplicity  which  success 
could  not  spoil,  and  a  sympathy  which 
neither  political  reverses  nor  popular  pre- 
judices nor  domestic  griefs  could  chill. 

We  should  make  it  a  purpose  of  our  life 
to  carry  the  child-spirit  with  us  in  its  fresh- 
ness through  the  years.  It  is  only  thus 
that  we  can  keep  in  touch  with  heaven. 
We  are  all  as  little  children  when  we  pray, 
if  we  really  pray.  And  prayer  is  the  tran- 
scendent act  of  the  soul  through  which  we 
come  to  our  utmost  spiritual  stature.  We 
shall  never  do  anything  greater  than  to 
keep  the  child  in  us  alive  to  the  end.  If 
we  could  choose  the  mood  of  our  own 
death-hour  it  would  be  to  fall  asleep  in 
Jesus  as  a  child  sinks  into  slumber  in  its 
mother's  arms.  It  is  said  that  Daniel 
Webster,  in  his  last  moments  of  conscious- 
ness, folded  his  hands  upon  his  breast  and 
prayed  : — 

••Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep, 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  keep ; 
If  I  should  die  before  I  wake. 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  cake. 
And  this  I  ask  for  Jesus'  sake, 

Amen." 

When    the   great    Guthrie    lay   dying,    he 


CHRIST  IN  THE  MANGER  9 

asked  the  watchers  about  his  bed  to  "  si^ig 
a  bairn's  hymn."  Always  the  child  in  us  is 
our  chief  dependence  for  contact  with  the 
Infinite. 

2. 

The  Babe  in  the  Manger  is  the  Unmistakable 
Sign  of  God's  Sympathy  with  Men. 

All  our  knowledge  of  God  is  obtained 
through  signs,  of  one  sort  or  another. 
The  nature-world  is  a  many-paged  sign- 
book,  written  through  with  symbols  of 
intelligence  and  power.  But  it  cannot  tell 
us  what  we  most  need  to  know  concern- 
ing God's  attitude  to  our  individual  lives. 
This  knowledge  we  can  only  attain  through 
the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ. 

It  may  with  accuracy  be  said  that  all  the 
story  of  Christ's  life  on  earth  is  a  record  of 
the  eloquent  signs  He  gave  to  men  in  God's 
behalf.  Wherever  we  find  Him  in  the 
Gospel  narratives,  whether  in  home  or 
synagogue  or  temple,  in  wilderness  or 
city,  on  mountain  or  on  lake ;  whatever 
form  of  activity  we  find  Him  engaged  in, 
whether  teaching  or  healing,  stilling  storms 
or  subduing  spirits,  forgiving  sins  or  raising 
the  dead  or  suffering  on  the  cross ;  this  one 
thing  He  is  ever  doing — flashing  signal- 
lights  from  God  to    men.     He  made  signs 


10         CHRIST  IN  THE  MANGER 

to  men,  and  they  were  the  most  impres- 
sive and  appealing  that  the  world  has 
ever  seen  ;  but  he  was  able  to  make  these 
signs  because  He  was  in  Himself  the  Sign 
of  Signs. 

If  we  accept  the  New  Testament  account 
of  the  origin  of  Bethlehem's  Babe  we  can 
no  longer  doubt  God's  perfect  sympathy 
with  men.  Christ  in  the  manger  means 
that  deity  has  cradled  itself  in  the  midst 
of  human  poverty  and  sorrow  and  suffer- 
ing and  sin.  When  this  child  weeps  we 
behold  our  God  in  tears.  When  He  dies 
upon  His  cross  we  behold  the  blood  drip 
from  the  heart  of  the  Eternal.  The  Babe 
in  the  manger  is  the  sign  of  God's  desire 
to  come  near  to  us,  to  share  our  sorrows, 
to  bear  our  sins,  to  deliver  us  from  every 
evil  thing,  and  to  save  us  unto  His  eternal 
kingdom. 

3. 

The  Babe  in  the  Manger  is  the  Conclusive 
Sign  of  Mans  Capacity  for  Receiving 
God. 

The  creation  story  tells  us  of  a  man  made 
in  the  image  of  God.  The  incarnation  story 
tells  us  of  a  God  made  in  the  image  of  man. 
The  child-man  in  the  garden  and  the  man- 
child   in   the  manger  are   both  impressive 


CHRIST  IN  THE  MANGER         11 

signs  of  the  kinship  between  God  and  man  ; 
but  the  latter  is  by  far  the  clearer  and 
more  conclusive.  In  this  child  came  to 
dwell  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily. 
The  perfectness  of  the  character  of  the 
Son  of  Man  is  the  proof  that  the  moral 
attributes  of  God  may  come  to  be  the 
personal  possession  of  men.  This  capacity 
for  the  indwelling  of  God  raises  humanity 
to  a  new  dignity.  That  the  Son  of  God 
should  become  the  Son  of  Man  is  the 
highest  compliment  that  deity  could  pay 
humanity.  It  has  been  conjectured  that 
the  fall  of  Lucifer  was  due  to  the  anger 
of  his  wounded  pride  on  learning  of  the 
purpose  of  the  Son  to  pass  by  the  nature 
of  angels  and  take  upon  Himself  the  nature 
of  men. 

4. 

The  Babe  in  the  Manger  is  a  Sign  to  Warn 
us  against  the  Danger  of  Neglecting  to 
Offer  the  Hospitalities  of  our  Hea7'ts  to 
Christ. 

The  fact  that  in  the  hour  of  His  birth 
"  The  little  Lord  Jesus  laid  down  His  sweet 
head "  in  a  stall,  will  always  serve  as  a 
reminder  of  man's  blindness  to  high  privi- 
lege. That  inn  at  Bethlehem  came  near 
to   having   greatness   thrust   upon  it.      It 


12         CHRIST  IN  THE  MANGER 

was  within  a  hair's-breadth  of  being 
immortalized  by  the  patronage  of  the 
King  of  Kings.  But  it  knew  not  the 
day  of  its  visitation.  The  tide  of  travel 
surging  through  the  land  in  consequence 
of  the  Emperor's  edict  that  all  the  world 
should  be  taxed  and  that  each  man  should 
go  to  his  birthplace  for  registration, 
had  brought  an  unwonted  crowd  to 
the  little  inn.  Before  Joseph  and  Mary 
could  secure  accommodation  the  place  was 
full.  The  first  to  come  was  the  first  to  be 
served,  so  that  there  was  "  no  room  "  for 
the  Holy  Family  in  the  hour  of  their 
emergency. 

It  is  a  characteristic  feature  of  our 
modern  life  that  the  available  space  within 
us  is  speedily  taken  and  densely  packed. 
If  a  man  has  any  capacity  for  thinking  in 
these  days  the  chambers  of  his  mind  will  be 
quickly  filled  with  intellectual  interests. 
Science  is  busy  sending  in  new  facts  and 
theories  and  demanding  that  they  be 
accommodated.  It  wires  ahead  for  rooms, 
offering  big  prices.  It  threatens  with  pains 
and  penalties  should  it  be  denied.  Along 
with  Science  come  Art  and  Literature  and 
Philosophy  and  Politics,  each  clamouring 
for  room  and  entertainment.  Business,  too, 
shoulders  its  way  into  the   soul.     It  rides 


CHRIST  IN  THE  MANGER         13 

up  to  the  gates  booted  and  spurred  and 
splashed  with  mud.  Sometimes  there  is 
blood  on  the  feet  of  the  horses  which  it 
rides.  It  comes  with  force  and  impatience. 
Its  riding-whip  beats  a  loud  challenge  upon 
the  door.  Pushing  in,  also,  to  book  for 
rooms,  are  the  varied  Pleasures  which  our 
modern  civilisation  affords.  Loudly  they 
knock  for  entrance.  They  promise  song 
and  story  and  games  and  laughter  and 
forgetfulness.  The  danger  is  that  amidst 
all  these  claimants  for  our  hospitahty 
Christ  may  be  crowded  out.  There  are 
some  quaint,  sweet  lines  in  an  old 
Moravian  hymn-book  which  may  serve 
to  work  in  us  a  greater  carefulness  in 
this  regard. 

"  But  art  Thou  come,  dear  Saviour  ?    Hath  Thy  love 
Thus  made  Thee  stoop,  and  leave  Thy  throne  above 
The  lofty  heavens,  and  thus  Thyself  to  dress 
In  dust,  to  visit  mortals  ?     Could  no  less 
A  condescension  serve  ?     And  after  all 
The  mean  reception  of  a  cratch  and  stall  ? 
Dear  Lord,  I'll  fetch  Thee  thence !    I  have  a  room 
('Tis  poor,  but  'tis  my  best),  if  Thou  wUt  come 
Within  so  small  a  cell,  where  I  would  fain 
Mine  and  the  world's  Redeemer  entertain ; 
I  mean,  my  heart;    'tis  sluttish,  I  confess. 
And  will  not  mend  Thy  lodging,  Lord,  unless 
Thou  send  before  Thy  harbinger ;   I  mean 
Thy  pure  and  purging  Grace,  to  make  it  clean 
And  sweep  its  nasty  corner  ;  then  I'll  try 
To  wash  it  also  with  a  weeping  eye. 


14         CHRIST  IN  THE  MANGER 

And  when  'tis  swept  and  wash'd,  I  then  will  go 
And  with  Thy  leave,  I'll  fetch  some  flowers  that  grow 
In  Thine  own  garden,  Faith  and  Love  to  Thee ; 
"With  these  I'll  dress  it  up,  and  these  shall  be 
My  rosemary  and  bays.     But  when  my  best 
Is  done,  the  room's  not  fit  for  such  a  Guest. 
But  here's  the  cure ;   Thy  presence,  Lord,  alone 
Will  make  a  stall  a  Court,  a  cratch  a  Throne." 

I  have  read  that  if  one  were  to  suspend 
a  bell  weighing  a  hundred  tons,  and  a  little 
child  were  to  stand  beneath  it  and  play 
upon  a  flute,  the  vibrations  of  the  air 
produced  by  the  playing  of  the  flute  would 
cause  the  bell  to  tremble  like  a  living  thing 
and  resound  through  all  its  mass.  As  bell 
responds  to  flute  so  the  heart  of  the 
Christian  responds  to  the  music  of  the 
message  that  issues  from  the  manger-cradle 
of  the  Babe  of  Bethlehem.  The  time  will 
come  when  the  music  from  that  manger 
shall  melt  into  itself  all  earth's  Babel  sounds 
and  fill  the  world  with  harmony.  When 
the  heart  of  humanity  has  been  everywhere 
touched  and  tuned  into  accord  with  the 
ground-note  of  Bethlehem,  it  will  become  a 
golden  bell  whose  rhythmic  strokes  in  the 
tower  of  Time  shall — 

'*  "Ring  out  the  want,  the  care,  the  sin. 
The  faithless  coldness  of  the  times." 


CHRIST'S    FIRST    RECORDED   WORDS 


"  How  is  it  that  ye  sought  me  ?    Wist  ye  not  that  I 
must  be  about  my  Father's  business  ?  " — Luke  ii.  49. 


CHAPTER    II 

CHEIST'S  FIEST  RECOEDED  WOEDS 

THESE  were  the  first  drops  to  fall  into 
the  flask  of  history  from  the  fountain 
of  Christ's  speech.  We  taste  in  them  all  the 
distinctive  flavours  of  that  Water  of  Life 
which  afterwards  flowed  so  freely  from 
that  exhaustless  spring.  The  qualities  of 
spontaniety,  originality  and  authority, 
which  characterise  the  later  utterances  of 
the  Great  Teacher  are  all  present  in  this 
first  crystal  jet  of  speech  which  fell  from 
His  fresh,  young  lips.  Yet  with  all  these 
qualities  in  them,  the  words  do  not  impress 
us  as  being  precocious  words.  There  is 
nothing  weird  about  them.  They  do  not 
sound  like  the  sententiously  ambitious 
sayings  of  a  child-prodigy.  They  do  not 
make  us  think  of  Jesus  as  of  one  grown 
old  before  His  time — one  too  early  with- 
drawn from  the  natural  interests  and 
simple    joys    of    happy    boyhood.      Even 

3  17 


18  CHRIST'S  FIRST 

with  these  great  words  upon  His  lips, 
words  destined  for  immortahty,  He  is  still 
to  us  the  sweet,  glad-hearted,  unaffected 
son  of  Mary.  And  this  for  the  reason  that 
they  are  so  obviously  unstudied  words.  The 
truth  which  they  convey  had  not  been 
reached  by  strenuous  processes  of  reasoning. 
It  was  native  to  His  mind.  The  utterance 
was  as  effortless  as  the  shedding  of  its 
fragrance  by  a  rose. 

In  this  fact  we  find  the  secret  of  the 
uniqueness  and  supremacy  of  Christ  as  a 
religious  teacher.  He  was  born  into  the 
world  with  a  perfect  faculty  for  knowing 
and  revealing  God.  No  human  being  ever 
approached  Him  in  this  respect.  In  the 
realm  of  spiritual  truth  He  moved  as  freely 
and  as  buoyantly  as  a  bird  in  air.  His  soul 
was  wondrously  winged  for  flight  into  that 
upper  region.  His  thoughts  towards  God 
were  ever  "  blithesome  and  cumberless." 
Though  His  heart  had  nest  upon  the 
ground  in  the  love  of  Mary  and  of  Joseph, 
His  spirit  made  frequent,  lark-like  flights 
into  the  heavens,  stripping  off  a  song  at 
every  spiral  of  its  ascending,  until  it 
touched  the  bosom  of  the  Eternal ;  then 
it  would  come  singing  back  to  earth  again 
to  rest  contentedly  in  the  affection  of  those 
humble  human  hearts.     He  knew  God  in- 


RECORDED  WORDS  19 

tiiiiively  and  infallibly.  This  is  why  Ho 
knew  Man  and  Nature  so  accurately  and 
profoundly.  He  approached  these  prob- 
lems from  the  upper  side.  He  came 
through  God  to  Nature  and  to  Man. 
Standing  in  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of 
God,  He  saw  through  Nature  and  through 
Man,  through  Time  and  through  Eternity. 

This  first  recorded  utterance  of  the  Holy 
Child  makes  a  fi.tting  "foreword"  to  the 
gospel  afterwards  unfolded  by  the  man 
Christ  Jesus.  It  stands  as  the  "Beautiful 
Gate"  of  the  Temple  of  truth  erected  by 
His  potent  words  and  works.  The  plan  of 
this  massive  doorway  harmonises  perfectly 
with  the  architecture  of  the  cathedral  to 
which  it  gives  us  entrance.  As  we  linger 
here  we  catch  the  prelude  of  the  song  with 
which  the  building  resounds  from  crypt  to 
dome. 

The  message  of  Jesus  from  first  to  last 
was  a  message  concerning  the  nature  and 
ways  of  God.  And  both  these  notes  are 
sounded  here. 

1. 

Christ  here  declares  the  Fact  of  God's 
Fatherhood. 

Holman  Hunt's  conception  of  the  Temple 
scene  as  set  forth  in  his  picture  is  delight- 


20  CHRIST'S  FIRST 

fully  suggestive.  Jesus  has  evidently  seen 
His  mother  as  she  enters  the  Temple-court, 
and  hastens,  with  the  love-light  in  His  eyes, 
to  w^elcome  her.  As  the  artist  paints  the 
group,  they  are  standing  apart  from  the 
doctors  of  the  law  and  the  other  youths 
of  the  Temple  school.  Mary's  arm  is  laid 
caressingly  around  the  shoulders  of  her 
beautiful  son,  and  her  lips  are  very  close 
to  His  ear  as  she  whispers  to  Him  the 
story  of  the  parental  anxiety.  Joseph 
stands  behind,  peering  over  Mary's 
shoulder,  with  an  expression  of  perplexity 
and  affection  upon  his  noble  face.  They 
make  a  charming  group,  and  all  their 
bearing  betokens  the  finest  feeling.  The 
artist  would  have  us  believe  that  there 
was  no  rushing  in  of  a  dishevelled  woman, 
frantic  with  fear  and  screaming  out  re- 
proaches, but  rather  a  tender  and  dignified 
reunion  of  the  family,  accompanied  by  a 
gentle  reminder  of  the  lad's  filial  obliga- 
tions. But  that  word  "  Father "  which 
Mary  utters  proves  to  be  a  kindling  word. 
"  Does  my  Father  seek  Me  ?  Do  you  not 
understand  that  God  is  My  Father?  He 
does  not  need  to  seek  Me,  for  I  am  ever 
with  Him."  There  was  no  unfilialness 
towards  Mary  or  Joseph  in  the  reply 
which   Jesus   gave,  but  only  a  loving   re- 


RECORDED  WORDS  21 

minder  of  the  relation  which  He  bore  to 
God  and  of  the  fact  that  the  higher  rela- 
tion must  rule  His  life.  Flashing  forth  in 
such  sweet,  spontaneous  fashion  from  His 
boyhood's  consciousness  of  God,  this  word 
"Father"  entered  the  soul  of  Mary  with 
the  light  of  a  new  revelation.  It  became 
for  her,  henceforth,  "  the  master-light "  of 
all  her  seeing. 

And  this  word  "  Father  "  proved  to  be  the 
master-word  of  all  Christ's  teaching.  By 
this  He  made  known  the  essence  of  God's 
character  as  a  God  of  love.  Every  great 
doctrine  which  He  expounded  had  its  roots 
in  this  fundamental  conception.  Not  only 
so,  but  they  were  all  distinctly  stated  in 
terms  of  the  divine  Fatherhood. 

Consider  His  doctrine  of  Providence. 
The  kernel  of  it  all  lies  in  the  words, 
"  Be  ye  not  therefore  anxious,  saying, 
What  shall  we  eat?  or.  What  shall  we 
drink?  or.  Wherewithal  shall  we  be 
clothed?  For  your  heavenly  Father 
knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of  all  these 
things." 

Take  His  doctrine  of  Prayer.  Both  the 
obligation  and  the  encouragement  to  pray 
are  grounded  in  the  fact  of  the  Fatherhood. 
"  After  this  manner  therefore  pray  ye :  Our 
Father  which  art  in  heaven."     *•  If  ye  then, 


22  CHRIST'S  FIRST 

being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts 
unto  your  children,  how  much  more  shall 
your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  give  good 
things  to  them  that  ask  Him  ?  " 

Study  His  doctrine  of  Repentance.  The 
call  to  repentance  which  He  issued  was  in 
behalf  and  in  the  name  of  God's  paternal 
relation.  Sin  He  viewed  as  the  reign  of 
unfilial  feeling  in  the  heart  that  was  made 
for  filial  love.  To  repent  was  to  arise  and 
go  to  the  Father.  The  great  incentive 
which  Ho  gave  for  turning  away  from 
sin  was  the  "joy  in  the  presence  of  the 
angels  of  God  over  one  sinner  that  re- 
penteth." 

Also  the  clearest  light  in  which  we  can 
view  the  Atonement  is  the  light  which 
He  shed  upon  it  from  the  Fatherhood. 
It  was  in  the  fact  of  the  divine  Father- 
hood that  He  found  the  supreme  impulse 
for  His  atoning  work.  The  end  aimed  at 
in  the  Atonement  was  the  winning  back 
of  alienated  children  to  the  fellowship  of 
the  Father.  The  means  employed  were 
those  of  sacrificial  love.  Both  were  of  the 
Father.  "Therefore  doth  My  Father  love 
Me,  because  I  lay  down  My  life.  No  one 
taketh  it  away  from  Me,  but  I  lay  it 
down  of  Myself.  I  have  power  to  lay  it 
down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it  again. 


RECORDED  WORDS  23 

This  commandment  received  I  from  My 
Father." 

If  we  consider  His  doctrine  of  Salvation 
we  find  the  keystone  of  it  all  in  the  great 
word  of  assuring  promise,  "My  Father 
which  gave  them  Me  is  greater  than  all ; 
and  no  one  is  able  to  snatch  them  out  of 
the  Father's  hand." 

When  we  think  of  Heaven  it  is  in  terms 
of  the  same  great  word  which  He  gave 
when  He  said,  "  In  My  Father's  house  are 
many  mansions :  if  it  were  not  so,  I  would 
have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you." 

In  unveiling  to  men  the  essential  and 
universal  Fatherhood  of  God,  Jesus  gave 
the  world  its  most  comprehensive  and 
redemptive  revelation  of  the  deity.  It 
was  the  golden  key  with  which  He  un- 
locked the  heart  of  mankind  for  the  in- 
coming of  God.  He  drew  it  from  His 
girdle  that  day  in  the  Temple  when  He 
was  but  twelve  years  old,  and  still,  as  the 
warden  of  souls.  He  is  using  it  to  open 
prison  doors  and  give  release  to  men 
made  captive  by  sin.  There  is  no  other 
key  that  fits  the  human  heart  like  this. 

The  doctrine  of  God's  Fatherhood  as 
Christ  proclaimed  it  was  distinctly  new 
to    the    thought    of    men.      Judaism   had 


24  CHRIST'S  FIRST 

never  attained  to  it.  The  prophets  of 
Israel  regarded  Jehovah  as  holding  the 
relation  of  father  to  the  nation  or  to  the 
nation's  king.  He  was  even  believed  to 
hold  the  relation  to  selected  individuals 
in  the  favoured  nation.  But  there  is  no 
record  of  any  pre-Christian  thinker  ascrib- 
ing universal  Fatherhood  to  God.  Until 
Christ  came  the  continent  of  the  divine 
Fatherhood  remained,  for  the  greater  part, 
an  unknown  land.  It  had  been  discovered, 
but  not  explored.  The  coast-line  had  been 
traced  in  part,  but  the  interior  was  as  yet 
untraversed.  Christ  traversed  it,  surveyed 
it,  and  mapped  it.  He  threaded  it  with 
highways,  and  opened  it  up  for  the  en- 
trance and  habitation  of  mankind.  He 
told  men  of  the  wealth  it  held,  and  of 
the  homesteads  for  their  hearts  which 
were  waiting  there. 

2. 

The  Father's  Business. 

In  this  first  word  of  Jesus  He  also 
declares  His  thought  of  God  as  immanent 
in  the  world,  active  and  enterprising  in 
behalf  of  men.  This,  too,  was  a  truth 
needing  fresh  and  authoritative  statement. 
For  this  was  by  no  moans  the  prevailing 


RECORDED  WORDS  25 

idea  of  God.  The  priests  of  Judaism  con- 
ceived of  Jehovah  as  one  who  dwelt  apart 
from  men  in  secret,  inaccessible  shrines, 
within  closed  doors  and  behind  thick  veils. 
God  was  only  to  be  approached  through 
the  priesthood.  He  was  normally  a  God 
at  rest.  His  august  leisure  must  not  be 
disturbed.  His  majestic  calm  must  not  be 
rudely  ruffled  by  the  invasion  of  trifling 
human  concerns.  The  priestly  notion,  so 
far  as  it  prevailed,  made  for  religious 
barrenness  and  deadness.  It  laid  an  icicle 
on  the  breast  of  the  worshipper  which 
smote  his  finer  enthusiasms  down  with 
deadly  chill.  It  tended  to  paralyse  both 
the  sensory  and  the  motor  nerves  of  faith. 
With  God  remote,  unapproachable,  im- 
passive, religion  grew  formal  and  passion- 
less. Had  not  singers  and  seers  arisen  to 
quicken  the  spiritual  pulse  of  the  nation 
with  the  thought  of  God's  perpetual  pre- 
sence, the  faith  of  Israel  would  have 
withered  into  a  seedless  and  abortive 
thing.  But  the  poets  and  prophets,  with 
their  mystic  insight,  were  continually  pro- 
testing against  the  hard,  cold,  deistic  creed 
of  the  priesthood.  They  saw  God  in  nature 
and  in  history  and  in  the  events  of  their 
own  times.  They  found  Him  in  the  gales 
of  inspiration  which  smote  upon  their  own 


26  CHRIST'S  FIRST 

souls.  They  summoned  men  to  come  forth 
from  sluggishness  and  slumber,  and  meet 
God  in  the  duties,  the  privileges,  the  perils, 
and  the  changes  of  the  days  in  which  they 
lived.  It  was  their  constant  aim  to  bring 
the  sense  of  a  divine  presence  "  home  to 
men's  business  and  bosoms."  And  it  was 
this  idea  of  God  which  Christ  revived  and 
clarified  and  accentuated.  It  stirred  His 
heart  in  childhood  and  fired  His  zeal  in 
manhood.  The  thought  which  was  con- 
tinually upon  His  heart  found  expression 
in  the  words,  "  My  Father  worketh  hitherto 
and  I  work." 

The  business  of  the  Father  as  repre- 
sented by  the  Son  is  seen  to  be  the  most 
Urgent  Business  in  the  world.  The  in- 
terests which  it  involves  are  of  super- 
lative importance.  It  has  primarily  to  do 
with  the  relations  of  men  to  God  upon 
which  their  spiritual  and  eternal  destinies 
depend.  Compared  with  this,  all  other 
human  interests  shrivel  into  insignifi- 
cance. He  was  continually  teaching  men 
to  put  the  claims  of  this  business  first. 
He  constantly  yielded  to  the  supremacy 
of  those  claims  over  His  own  life.  The 
words  which  He  spoke  to  Mary  in  the 
Temj)le  witness  to  the  sense  of  compul- 
sion   which    had    thus    early   gripped  His 


RECORDED  WORDS  27 

consciousness  :  "  I  must  be  about  My 
Father's  business."  That  feeling  burned 
in  His  soul  with  hot  intensity  until  the 
heavens  received  Him.  Every  day  of  His 
life  gave  evidence  of  His  overmastering 
conviction  that  He  rnust  work  the  works 
of  Him  that  sent  Him. 

The  Father's  business,  as  interpreted  by 
the  Son,  is  the  most  Beneficent  Business 
in  the  world.  It  was  initiated  at  the  dic- 
tates of  pure  love  and  grace.  It  is  free 
from  taint  of  selfishness.  It  involves  no 
wreckage.  It  aims  at  nothing  less  than 
the  perfecting  of  humanity  through  re- 
storation to  God's  fellowship  and  favour. 
The  first  prospectus  of  the  business,  as 
issued  by  the  Son,  in  the  synagogue  at 
Nazareth,  proclaims  its  beneficent  intent : 
"To  preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor;  to 
heal  the  broken-hearted;  to  preach  deliver- 
ance to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of 
sight  to  the  blind;  to  set  at  liberty  them 
that  are  bruised ;  to  proclaim  the  accept- 
able year  of  the  Lord." 

It  is  the  most  Profitable  Business  in  the 
world.  It  is  profitable  for  the  life  that 
uow  is,  and  for  that  which  is  to  come. 
It  yields  a  hundredfold  in  dividends  to 
all  its  shareholders,  now  in  this  time, 
and  in  the    world    to    come    eternal  life. 


28  CHRIST'S  FIRST 

Its  returns  cannot  be  computed  in  terms 
of  earthly  values.  Whoever  puts  his  life 
into  this  business  becomes  heir  of  all 
things  that  have  real  and  lasting  worth- 
fulness.  He  becomes  the  heir  of  God 
and  a  joint-heir  with  Jesus.  In  this  busi- 
ness he  finds  his  higher  self,  he  finds  his 
God,  he  finds  the  life  abundant.  To  gather 
earthly  treasure  at  the  neglect  of  this  busi- 
ness is  to  see  it  consumed  by  the  moth  and 
the  rust.  To  associate  ourselves  with  the 
Father's  business  is  to  lay  up  priceless 
treasure  in  a  permanent  treasury.  The 
interest  which  this  business  pays  upon 
our  investments  goes  on  compounding  for 
evermore.  The  premium  which  Christ 
paid,  in  humiliation  and  in  sufferings, 
that  He  might  control  this  business,  is 
beyond  all  computation.  It  is  still  the 
wonder  of  the  world.  Yet  the  business 
has  yielded  Him  a  princely  revenue  upon 
that  unspeakably  vast  investment.  He 
sees  of  the  travail  of  His  soul  and  is 
satisfied. 

It  is  the  most  Highly  Capitalised  Busi- 
ness in  the  world.  Many  a  promising  en- 
terprise has  been  hindered  in  its  expansion, 
crippled  in  its  operations,  and  compulsorily 
abandoned  through  lack  of  resources.  A 
great  deal  of  that  sort  of  thing  has  been 


RECORDED  WORDS  29 

taking  place  of  late,  owing  to  the  upheaval 
in  Wall  Street.  Capital  has  been  chilled 
and  its  outflow  checked.  Instead  of  flowing 
into  the  channels  of  trade  and  commerce 
and  offering  itself  for  works  of  develop- 
ment, it  has  burrowed  underground.  Men 
have  been  hiding  their  holdings  as  a  dog 
hides  his  bone.  The  result  has  been  dis- 
astrous. But  the  Father's  business  is  never 
cramped  for  lack  of  capital.  The  infinite 
riches  of  divine  wisdom  and  grace  and 
power  are  behind  it.  The  wealth  of  the 
Godhead  is  at  our  disposal  whensoever  we 
wish  to  draw  upon  it.  The  grace  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  love  of  God,  and 
the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Spirit  wait 
upon  our  call.  We  are  not  straightened 
in  God,  we  are  only  straightened  in  our 
own  unbelief  and  timidity.  None  of  us 
have  yet  drawn  to  the  full  extent  of  our 
privilege  upon  the  capital  placed  to  our 
account.  Unclaimed  balances  await  us ; 
but  they  will  not  lie  unused  for  ever. 
What  is  left  unclaimed  will  ultimately  be 
passed  to  another  account.  To  him  that 
hath  shall  be  given;  but  from  him  that 
hath  not  (because  he  will  not  take)  shall 
be  taken  away  even  that  which  he  seemeth 
to  have. 
It  is  the  most  Comprehensive  Business  in 


30  CHRIST'S  FIRST 

the  world.  Whosoever  will  may  become 
a  partner  and  profit-sharer  in  the  enter- 
prise which  brought  Christ  to  the  manger 
and  the  cross.  The  Father's  business  is 
broad  enough  to  embrace  within  its  opera- 
tions all  the  honest  work  of  consecrated 
hands. 

The  consecration  of  any  work  to  God, 
however  humble  it  may  be,  raises  it  to  the 
status  of  a  divine  service,  and  incorporates 
it  into  the  business.  We  should  always 
remember  that  service  is  more  than  labour. 
It  has  a  superadded  quality  and  dignity. 
One  may  toil  unceasingly  yet  render  no 
real  service.  The  devil  is  industrious. 
The  whirlpool  and  the  fountain  are  equally 
active,  but  to  far  different  ends.  The  one 
sucks  all  things  into  itself  to  satiate  its 
own  omniverous  maw ;  the  other  yields 
up  its  contents  for  the  refreshment  of 
the  world.  Service  is  labour  baptized  and 
anointed  and  consecrated  to  high  ends. 
William  Carey,  cobbling  shoes  here  in 
Leicester,  pegging  away  in  that  dingy  little 
room  in  Harvey  Lane,  cobbling  them  as 
best  he  could — though  they  do  say  he  was 
never  a  skilful  workman,  and  that  he  could 
not  make  two  shoes  alike — yet  putting  in 
honest  leather,  and  sound  pegs  and  strong 
stitches,  and  consecrating  the  toil  to  the 


RECORDED  WORDS  31 

service  of  God's  kingdom,  was  as  truly  in 
the  Father's  business  as  was  Dr.  William. 
Carey,  the  distinguished  Oriental  Scholar, 
when  translating  languages,  preaching  the 
gospel  and  baptizing  converts  in  India. 
That  little  workshop,  with  its  lasts  and 
awls,  and  hammers  and  waxed-ends,  and 
scraps  of  leather,  represented  a  department 
of  the  heavenly  Father's  business.  God 
was  in  the  cobbling  trade  here  in  Leices- 
ter while  William  Carey  worked  in  Harvey 
Lane.  And  so  He  is  in  every  trade  here 
and  throughout  the  world  where  human 
hands,  however  rough  or  hard,  are  work- 
ing at  the  dictates  of  His  will  and  for 
the  glory  of  His  name.  It  is  the  privi- 
lege of  each  disciple  to  find  a  service  for 
God  in  the  service  of  man,  and  a  service 
for  man  in  the  service  of  God,  and  thus 
to  become  a  co-worker  with  Him  whom 
we  call  the  God-man. 

"God's  work  is  one  eternal  sphere, 
Our  work  a  segment  of  His  work. 
And  he  whose  spirit  eye  is  clear, 
Whose  ready  will  no  load  would  shirk, 
May  read  his  name  divinely  writ 
Upon  the  work  for  him  most  fit, 
Assigned  to  him  for  each  new  year. 
And  so  no  true  work  comes  to  naught, 
But  with  God's  endless  work  is  wrought 
And  with  eternal  glory  fraught." 


CHRIST   AT    THE    JORDAN 


"Then  comstli  Jesus  from  Galilee  to  Jordan  unto 
John,  to  be  baptized  of  him. 

But  John  would  have  hindered  him,  saying,  I  have 
need  to  be  baptized  of  thee,  and  comest  thou  to  me  ? 

But  Jesus  answering  said  unto  him,  Suffer  it  to  be  so 
now  :  for  thus  it  becometh  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness. 
Then  he  suffered  him. 

And  Jesus,  when  he  was  baptized,  went  up  straightway 
from  the  water :  and  lo,  the  heavens  were  opened  unto 
him,  and  he  saw  the  Spirit  of  God  descending  as  a  dove 
and  coming  upon  him :  and,  lo,  a  voice  out  of  the  heavens, 
saying,  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased." — Matthew  iii.  13-17. 


CHAPTER  III 

CHEIST  AT  THE  JOKDAN 

FOR  thirty  years  Jesus  remained  in 
obscurity.  Through  all  that  ardent 
period  of  youth  and  early  manhood,  when 
we  dream  of  conquests  and  of  crowns,  He 
plied  his  humble  trade  in  little  Nazareth. 
Aside  from  the  world's  thronged  high- 
ways, away  from  teeming  towns,  with- 
drawn from  the  political  ferment  of  the 
time,  free  from  the  wrangling  of  the 
schools,  He  lived  the  sweet  and  simple 
life  of  a  poor  working-man.  But  during 
all  this  time  "  the  Plant  of  Renown " 
was  coming  to  maturity.  Jesus  took 
"  leisure  to  grow  wise  and  shelter  to  grow 
strong."  He  would  not  give  the  world 
the  green  fruit  from  His  boughs.  He  let 
the  clusters  grow  to  their  full  size  and 
ripen  in  the  sunlight.  By  communing 
deep  with  God,  with  nature,  with  the 
sacred  Scriptures,  and  with  His  own  soul, 

35 


36        CHRIST  AT  THE  JORDAN 

He  learned  to  "  see  life  steadily  and  to 
see  it  whole."  Through  the  indwelling  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  vitalising  in  His  soul,  the 
discipline  of  daily  toil,  the  Spiritual  nature 
of  Jesus  came  at  length  to  perfect  fruit- 
age. And  then  He  shed  His  fruit.  Into 
the  winepress  He  cast  Himself,  and  when 
the  vintage  season  ended  the  cup  of  the 
world's  need  was  filled  with  the  cordial  of 
a  healing  grace. 

One  cannot  imagine  that  the  home- 
leaving  of  Jesus  would  be  marked  by 
any  special  excitement.  Doubtless  the 
thought  of  leaving  His  mother  wrenched 
His  heart.  But  the  voice  of  duty  was  too 
clearly  calling  Him  to  permit  of  any  in- 
ward conflict  or  confusion.  Calmly  He 
would  lay  aside  His  hammer  and  His 
plane,  roll  up  His  apron,  put  the  car- 
penter-shop in  order,  pass  over  the  little 
store  of  savings  (if  there  was  one)  to  His 
mother,  and  turn  His  steps  down  into  the 
Jordan  valley,  where  the  ministry  of  His 
cousin  John  was  creating  such  unwonted 
stir. 

We  may  not  conjecture  about  the 
thoughts  which  were  in  His  mind  that 
morning,  but  we  may  be  sure  that  He 
took  the  road  with  confident,  though  un- 
hasting     step,    and     that     He    went    with 


CHRIST  AT  THE  JORDAN        37 

elation,   tempered    by  serious   concern,   to 
this,  the  first  great  crisis  of  His  life. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  other  outstanding 
event  in  Christ's  life  of  which  the  signifi- 
cance is  so  slightly  appreciated  as  that  of 
His  baptism.  We  may  readily  perceive 
the  meaning  of  the  ordinance  so  far  as 
the  multitude  was  concerned.  Their  bap- 
tism was  the  sign  of  their  repentance  and 
of  their  faith  in  a  coming  Messiah.  John's 
mission  to  the  nation  had  this  double  pur- 
pose to  serve :  it  was  meant  to  stir  the 
national  conscience,  grown  sluggish  and 
feeble,  to  a  keener  sense  of  sin ;  and  it 
was  meant  to  revive  the  Messianic  ex- 
pectation, formerly  the  great,  distinctive 
national  hope,  but  which  had  long  been 
blanching  and  for  centuries  had  been 
voiceless.  But  what  purpose  could  be 
served  by  the  baptism  of  the  Messiah 
Himself?  He  was  separate  from  sinners 
and  harmless  and  undefiled.  And  He 
knew  Himself  to  be  the  Messiah.  What 
meaning,  then,  could  the  rite  of  baptism 
have  for  Him?  The  answer  is  a  four-fold 
one. 


38         CHRIST  AT  THE  JORDAN 


1. 

The  Baptism  of  Jesus  served  the  Purpose  of 
His  Messianic  Manifestation. 

We  do  not  know  that  John  and  Jesus 
had  ever  met  before.  It  is  almost  cer- 
tain that  they  had  not  seen  each  other 
for  a  decade  at  least.  Their  paths  had 
run  far  apart.  John  had  been  in  the 
wilderness,  living  the  life  of  an  ascetic, 
a  hermit,  and  a  rapt  listener  to  mystic 
voices.  He  had  been  expecting  the  early 
appearance  of  Messiah,  but  had  not 
thought  to  find  him  in  the  person  of 
his  quiet-mannered  carpenter-cousin  of 
Nazareth.  John  was  evidently  looking 
for  a  sterner  and  louder  Messiah  than 
Jesus  proved  to  be.  He  was  looking  for 
one  who  should  come  with  axe  and  fan 
and  fire ;  but  when  Messiah  appeared,  lo ! 
it  was  with  the  still,  small  voice.  He 
was  expecting  Messiah's  Day  to  be  a  day 
of  terror,  with  hurricane  and  thunder- 
bolts ;  but  when  it  dawned,  lo !  it  was  a 
lovely  day  in  June,  a  day  with  balm  in 
the  air  and  blue  in  the  sky,  and  a  light 
shining  clear  after  rain.  But  after  the 
baptism  John  had  no  further  doubt.  We 
have  his  own   clear  testimony.     "  I   knew 


CHRIST  AT  THE  JORDAN         39 

hiin  not:  but  that  He  should  be  made 
manifest  to  Israel,  for  this  cause  came  I 
baptizing  with  water."  "  And  I  saw  and 
bare  witness  that  this  was  the  Son  of 
God." 

2. 

The  Baptism  of  Jesus  served  to  Declare 
His  Identification  ivith  the  Cause  of 
Humanity. 

At  the  Jordan  Christ  made  common 
cause  with  mankind.  That  was  a  motley 
crowd  which  gathered  to  the  baptism  of 
John.  Jerusalem  and  Judea  had  emptied 
their  myriads  into  the  Jordan  valley  until 
even  John  was  amazed  by  the  multitude 
of  types  represented.  There  was  an 
omjiium  gatherum  of  every  sort  of  sinner 
which  the  country  contained.  It  repre- 
sented the  human  world.  When,  there- 
fore, Jesus  stepped  into  the  stream,  it  was 
as  though  He  said,  "  I  am  for  men  ;  these 
are  My  brethren ;  whatsoever  concerns 
them  concerns  Me." 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  Jesus 
began  His  public  ministry  upon  a  full 
flood  of  sympathetic  feeling  for  sinful 
humanity.  It  was  not  as  a  doctrinaire 
with  a  pet  theory  to  expound ;  not  as  a 
partizan  espousing  the  cause  of  a  class ;  not 


40         CHRIST  AT  THE  JORDAN 

as  a  zealot  with  a  little  programme  of 
reforms  to  effect;  it  was  as  the  Friend  of 
Sinners,  the  Champion  of  Humanity,  the 
Redeemer  of  the  Race  that  He  went  forth 
from  Nazareth.  Humble  as  His  human 
origin  had  been,  there  was  in  Him  no 
"dread  and  fear  of  kings,"  no  inherited 
prejudice  or  acquired  antipathy  against 
men  of  wealth  and  rank.  These  all  had 
place,  along  with  the  common  people  from 
whom  He  sprang,  in  His  inclusive  sym- 
pathy. Sinless  as  He  was,  and  exquisitely 
sensitive  to  impurity,  He  did  not  fear  to 
come  into  contact  with  vice  and  crime. 
He  could  handle  pitch  and  not  be  defiled. 
He  could  minister  to  any  sort  of  moral 
disease  without  risk  of  infection.  Thus 
He  was  able  to  include  all  men  within 
the  compass  of  His  ministrant  love. 

3. 

The  Baptism  served  for  a  Public  Consecra- 
tion to  His  Sacrificial  Mission. 

The  waters  of  the  Jordan  represented 
for  Him  the  stream  of  Death,  into  whose 
deep,  dark  tide  He  was  soon  to  enter 
that  all  its  waves  and  its  billows  might 
pass  over  Him.  When  He  rose  from  the 
Jordan,   uplifted    into    the    sweet  air  and 


CHRIST  AT  THE  JORDAN         41 

gracious  light  by  the  sturdy  arm  of  the 
baptizer,  while  pearly  drops  glistened 
upon  His  sacred  head,  He  was  picturing 
His  coming  triumph  over  the  grave,  His 
resurrection  from  the  tomb,  His  ascension 
to  the  free  air  and  light  of  heaven, 
and  His  coronation  at  God's  right  hand. 
The  baptism  was  a  complete,  dramatic 
portrayal  of  His  sacrificial  work. 

From  this  we  learn  that  the  cross  was 
not  an  afterthought  of  Christ's  public 
career.  He  did  not  adopt  it  as  a  last 
resource  after  exhausting  other  means.  It 
was  not  forced  upon  Him  by  the  stress  of 
unforeseen  circumstances.  The  cross  was 
carried  in  His  heart  consciously  and  con- 
stantly from  the  beginning.  "We  do  not 
know  how  early  in  those  years  at  Nazareth 
the  cross  first  swung  into  His  line  of 
vision,  but  one  thing  is  certain,  before  He 
left  His  home  He  knew  what  the  end 
would  be.  Before  He  stepped  across 
the  threshold  of  His  public  life  He  knew 
Himself  to  be  the  Lamb  of  God  sealed 
for  sacrifice. 

In  this  view  of  the  matter  the  baptism 
of  Jesus  was  a  challenge  and  defiance 
waved  in  the  face  of  death.  It  was  as 
though  He,  by  that  act,  planted  Himself 
in  the  very  middle  of  the  channel  through 


42         CHRIST  AT  THE  JORDAN 

which  the  torrent  of  priestly  hatred  would 
soon  be  foaming  to  whelm  Him.  He 
knew  that  for  a  moment  it  would  seem 
to  triumph,  but  for  a  moment  only.  Dis- 
appearing beneath  the  death-flood  that 
would  oversweep  Him  on  the  cross,  He 
would  presently  reappear,  death's  Con- 
queror. Alive  for  evermore,  He  would 
stand  as  Master  of  the  Flood,  with  power 
to  draw  all  whelmed  souls  forth  to  the 
banks  of  everlasting  life. 

4. 

The  Baptism  of  Jesus  presented  a  Fitting 
Occasion  for  God's  Attestation  to  His 
Divine  Sonship. 

The  heavenly  witness  was  given  in  a 
three-fold  manner. 

"The  heavens  were  opened  unto  Him." 
We  may  not  suppose  that  they  were 
opened  to  any  other  view  than  His.  The 
vision  of  the  glory-land  was  for  Him 
alone.  How  unspeakably  precious  and 
heartening  that  vision  must  have  been 
to  Him !  On  the  earthward  side  the  door 
was  opening  to  misunderstanding  and 
hatred,  to  suffering  and  shame.  It  must 
have  been  infinitely  comforting  to  His 
spirit  that  at  such    a   moment    the    door 


CHRIST  AT  THE  JORDAN         43 

of  heaven  opened  with  its  revelation  of 
the  sympathetic  interest  of  the  Father 
and  the  holy  angels.  In  that  moment 
He  experienced  a  foretaste  of  the  "  joy 
unspeakable  and  full  of  glory "  awaiting 
Him  on  the  other  side  of  the  cross.  I 
believe  that  to  His  vision  heaven  at  that 
moment  was  in  gala  dress,  with  hosts  of 
seraphs  crowding  the  bannered  battle- 
ments of  glory  and  chanting  hallelujah 
choruses  to  cheer  the  Champion  of 
Humanity  on  to  victory. 

There  was  also  the  heavenly  Messenger. 
"  The  Spirit  of  God  descending  as  a  dove  " 
rested  upon  Him.  The  dove  is  the  emblem 
of  Peace.  As  it  rested  that  day  upon  the 
Messiah  it  was  a  token  of  the  peace  of 
God  which  should  keep  the  heart  of  the 
blessed  Son  through  all  the  days  of  His 
earthly  pilgrimage.  And  we  know  that 
God's  peace  abode  with  Him  unto  the 
end : — 

"  Peace, 
Deep  as  the  sleep  of  the  sea 
When  the  stars  their  faces  glass 
In  its  blue  tranquillity." 

The  dove  is  the  emblem  of  Hope.  Noah's 
dove  returned  to  the  ark  with  one  fresh- 
plucked  leaf  in  its  beak.  That  was  to  him 
the  prophecy  and  pledge  of  a  whole  world  of 


44         CHRIST  AT  THE  JORDAN 

verdure  and  beauty  to  emerge  from  beneath 
the  waters  of  the  dehige.  The  dove  of  the 
Jordan  was  a  pledge  to  the  Christ  of  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth  to  follow  upon  His 
deluge  in  suffering  and  death. 

The  dove  is  the  emblem  of  Faithfulness. 
There  is  a  wonderful  homing  instinct  in 
the  heart  of  the  dove,  of  which  men  have 
availed  themselves  since  th©  days  of  Noah. 
May  it  not  be  that  we  have  here  a  hint  of 
the  faithfulness  of  the  divine  Spirit  to 
His  home  in  the  heart  of  Christ?  The 
soul  of  Jesus  was  the  chosen  nest  of  the 
heavenly  dove.  Nor  was  it  ever  abandoned. 
However  far  the  Son  might  be  tossed  upon 
the  billows  of  temptation  or  of  pain,  the 
Spirit  abode  with  Him,  His  solace  and  His 
strength.  Even  so  will  He  abide  in  the 
soul  of  every  child  of  God. 

The  dove  was  the  poor  man's  Altar-gift. 
When  the  worshipper  could  present  no 
costlier  offering,  he  might  bring  a  dove 
and  be  accepted.  Does  not  the  descend- 
ing dove  witness  to  the  fact  that  the 
poorest  of  men  may  avail  themselves  of 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ?  When  we  turn 
to  the  message  with  which  Jesus  a  little 
later  opened  His  teaching  ministry  we  can 
almost  hear  the  fluttering  wings  of  the 
heavenly  dove  in  the  gracious  words,  "The 


CHRIST  AT  THE  JORDAN         45 

Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon  Me,  because 
He  hath  anointed  Me  to  preach  good  tidings 
to  the  poor." 

Above  all,  there  was  the  witness  of  the 
Father's  voice.  Whether  it  was  heard  by 
any  other  ear  than  that  of  Jesus  we  do  not 
know.  But  He  heard  it,  the  Father's  word 
of  commendation  and  of  cheer,  "  This  is  My 
beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased." 
The  joy  which  that  assurance  brought  to 
Jesus  is  past  all  telling  or  imagining.  It  put 
the  stamp  of  the  divine  approval  upon  all 
the  years  that  He  had  lived  in  Nazareth. 
It  declared  that  He  was  fit  for  the  work 
God  had  given  Him  to  do. 


CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 


"  Then  was    Jesus    led    up    of    the    Spirit   into   the 
wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil," — Matthew  iv.  1. 


CHAPTER  IV 

CHRIST  IN   THE  WILDEENESS 

"  r  I  1HEN  " — immediately  after  the  opening 
-L  to  Him  of  the  windows  of  heaven — 
the  Son  of  God  is  led  past  the  very  mouth 
of  hell !  Before  He  wins  a  follower  or 
utters  a  parable  or  performs  an  act  of 
mercy,  He  is  made  to  prove,  by  personal 
contact,  the  feeling  and  attitude  of  both 
these  worlds.  Assured  of  the  Divine  favour, 
He  must  next  experience  the  subtle  enmity 
of  Satan.  He  must  get  clearly  defined  in 
His  consciousness  the  line  of  battle  which 
the  foe  has  set  in  array  against  Him  and 
determine  the  plan  of  action  by  which  it 
shall  be  met. 

The  whole  conflict  in  the  wilderness  was 
waged  around  the  question  of  the  use  that 
Christ  should  make  of  His  poiver. 

It  is  always  an  epoch-making  day  in  a 
young  man's  life  when  he  definitely  decides 
this  question.     If  he  can  get  this  question 

5  i9 


50    CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 

settled  early  and  settled  right  he  will  have 
done  a  great  thing  for  himself  and  for  all 
concerned  in  him.  The  door  of  destiny 
turns  on  the  hinge  of  that  decision.  It  is 
to  the  young  manhood  of  the  world,  con- 
scious of  its  power  but  undecided  what  to 
do  with  it,  that  this  event  of  our  Lord's 
life  makes  its  first  and  most  urgent  appeal. 

It  was  a  matter  of  infinite  moment  how 
Christ  should  answer  this  question  because 
He  was  so  supremely  endowed  with  power. 
His  was  the  most  highly  energised  person- 
ality the  world  has  ever  seen.  He  was  the 
consummate  Man.  His  brain  was  alive 
with  the  sense  of  penetrating  insight, 
and  His  whole  being  tingled  with  the 
consciousness  of  power.  To  such  an  one  as 
He  all  careers  lay  open.  He  could  grasp 
any  crown  towards  which  He  cared 
to  stretch  forth  His  hand.  He  could 
win  any  kingdom  whose  sceptre  He  cared 
to  wield.  He  could  wear  the  purple  of 
any  dignity  which  His  ambition  might 
covet.  Three  worlds — the  world  of  angels, 
the  world  of  demons,  and  the  world  of  men — 
were  vitally  concerned  in  the  issue  of  the 
conflict  to  which  the  Spirit  led  Him. 

During  the  hidden  years  at  Nazareth  the 
thoughts  of  Jesus  had  been  cast  into  the 
sacrificial  mould.     The  rod  of  His  will  had 


CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS    51 

budded  into  redemptive  purposes.  Is  the 
mould  to  be  preserved,  or  will  it  be  shattered 
when  it  strikes  against  the  hard  facts  of 
experience  and  trial  ?  Shall  these  buds 
unfold  into  flowers  rich  in  the  seeds  of 
everlasting  life,  or  must  they  be  nipped 
and  blasted  in  the  frosty  air  of  a  sceptical 
and  materialistic  age  ?  The  wilderness 
gives  the  answer.  The  sacrificial  mould  is 
to  remain  intact.  The  buds  of  redemptive 
purposes  are  to  go  on  to  golden  fruitage. 
The  programme  of  service  which  the 
Father  had  given  Him  is  not  to  be  super- 
seded, but  fulfilled  to  the  very  letter.  The 
experience  of  the  temptation  only  served  to 
test  and  reveal  and  confirm  His  life-plan. 
The  tremendous  pressure  which  was  put 
upon  Him  in  the  wilderness  proved  the 
granitic  quality,  the  adamantine  firmness 
of  the  basis  of  that  bridge  which  He  came 
to  construct  across  the  gulf  of  human  sin. 
Three  possible  uses  for  His  unrivalled 
powers  were  suggested  to  Jesus  by  the 
tempter.  They  are  the  same  uses  of  power 
to  which  all  men  of  force  and  genius  are 
liable  to  be  tempted.  The  first  suggestion 
was  that  He  should  use  His  power  for  the 
acquisition  of  material  goods ;  the  second, 
that  He  should  use  it  for  the  excitement  of 
popular  applause  ;  and  the  third  was,  that 


52    CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 

He  should  use  it  for  the  achievement  of 
high  political  position.  Each  of  these  ends 
may  have  place  on  a  strong  man's  pro- 
gramme of  life  as  a  means  to  some  higher 
end.  But  none  of  them  are  worthy  to  be 
made  supreme.  Secondary  places  they  may 
claim  for  themselves,  in  many  instances,  but 
to  assign  first  place  to  any  one  of  them, 
or  all  of  them  combined,  results  in  the 
degradation  of  life  and  the  apostasy  of 
being.  Whoever  would  live  the  life  of  a 
son  of  God  must  indignantly  reject  the 
suggestion  of  such  baneful  misdirection 
of  his  powers.  Christ's  rejection  of  these 
proposals  was  instantaneous,  indignant 
and  irrevocable.  As  a  fire  brand  flung 
into  the  sea  goes  at  once  black,  so  each 
suggestion  that  He  should  use  His  power 
for  other  than  the  highest  ends  fell 
harmless  at  His  feet. 

1. 

As  to  Making  Bread  out  of  Stones. 

The  suggestion  looks  harmless  enough  on 
the  surface  of  it.  Why  should  not  Christ 
use  His  power  to  feed  Himself?  He  had 
dire  need  of  bread  in  that  hour.  The  hunger 
that  was  upon  Him  after  the  long  fasting  was 
such  a  hunger  as  often  turns  men's  brains, 


CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS    53 

makes  them  fierce  and  wolfish,  forgetful  of 
honour,  and  reckless  of  consequences  if  only- 
it  can  be  appeased.  Surely  there  could  be 
no  harm  in  one  providing  himself  with 
bread  to  feed  a  hunger  like  that  if  he  could 
do  it  honestly.  There  is  no  virtue  in  self- 
starvation.  We  are  accustomed  rather  to 
think  of  bread-making  as  a  good  business. 
Since  bread  is  an  inexorable  necessity  of 
man's  physical  life,  we  regard  the  bread- 
winners as  the  honourable  of  the  earth. 

Does  the  objection  lie  against  the  pro- 
posed method  of  bread-making  ?  Can  any 
disgrace  attach  to  the  making  of  bread  out 
of  stones  ?  By  no  means.  We  take  honest 
pride,  to-day,  in  our  ability  to  do  that  very 
thing.  When  we  take  the  coal  and  the 
iron  from  the  mine  and  devote  them  to  a 
thousand  industrial  uses,  this  is  what  we 
are  really  doing — converting  stones  into 
bread.  It  is  not  in  England  that  one 
would  expect  to  hear  that  process  adversely 
criticised,  for  the  bulk  of  our  bread  here 
is  derived  from  stones  of  one  sort  and 
another,  put  through  one  process  or 
another.  Multitudes  of  our  people  would 
starve  should  our  "captains  of  industry' 
forget  how  to  make  bread  out  of  stones. 
Indeed,  when  we  reflect  upon  it,  we  dis- 
cover that  the  very  wheaten  bread  upon 


54    CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 

our  tables  is  literally  made  out  of  stones. 
It  all  came  out  of  the  earth,  and  the  crust 
of  the  earth  is  mostly  powdered  rock. 
The  farmer  growing  corn  for  bread  upon 
his  fields,  is  but  adopting  a  little  longer 
and  less  direct  method  of  getting  bread 
from  stones  than  that  which  was  suggested 
to  Jesus  in  the  wilderness.  So  it  may  look 
as  though  Jesus  was  suffering  needless 
hunger,  and  that  He  might  profitably 
have  used  His  power  to  prepare  Himself 
"  a  table "  there  in  the  presence  of  His 
enemy. 

Yet  the  suggestion  made  to  Him  was  in 
reality  an  insult.  The  point  of  the  skilfully 
bated  hook  is  uncovered  in  our  Lord's 
reply,  "Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone." 
Satan  would  have  the  hungered  Christ 
believe  that  man  could  live  by  bread  alone. 
He  was  insinuating  that  bread  was  man's 
first  and  chiefest  necessity.  It  was  the 
rank  materialism  and  implied  atheism 
of  the  suggestion  against  which  Christ 
revolted  with  such  horror  and  detestation. 
The  creed  that  Satan  sought  to  impose 
upon  Him  was  very  much  the  creed  of  the 
day.  But  it  was  no  creed  for  Christ.  He 
would  give  the  world  a  truer  and  a  better 
creed  than  that.  He  would  teach  men  that 
they  have  a  higher  life  to  live  than  that 


CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS    55 

which  is  dependent  upon  bread.  Man's 
highest  life  is  not  dependent  upon  bread  at 
all,  but  upon  truth,  upon  the  "Word  that 
proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God."  No 
one  ever  lived  who  so  deeply  sympathised 
with  man's  physical  needs  as  Christ  did.  He 
had  compassion  on  the  hungry  multitudes 
and  fed  them.  He  did  take  a  hand  at 
bread-making  for  a  time,  and  then  he  sud- 
denly ceased  and  refused  to  make  any  more. 
Through  all  these  attitudes  of  the  Master 
towards  the  matter  of  bread-making,  there 
runs  a  beautiful  consistency.  He  was 
never  indifferent  to  bodily  hunger.  When 
Christ  has  had  His  way  in  the  world, 
there  will  be  no  more  child-faces,  hunger- 
pinched,  and  no  famishing  men  in  any 
city  of  the  land.  He  does  not  grudge  any 
man  the  comforts  of  a  home.  The  best  fed 
peoples  of  the  world  live  in  Christian  lands. 
But  Christ  is  ever  putting  the  soul  above 
the  body.  He  reminds  us  that  we  aj^e 
spirits  and  have  bodies.  He  denies  that  we 
are  mere  physical  structures  which  have  a 
thing  called  soul.  That  was  His  position  in 
the  wilderness.  He  took  His  stand  upon 
the  fact  of  the  spirituality  of  man's  nature 
The  relation  to  God's  will  was  the  first 
thing  to  be  considered.  Better  starve  the 
body  than   the   soul.     And    that   was   His 


56     CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 

reason  for  ceasing  to  make  bread  for  the 
multitudes  later  on  in  His  ministry.  The 
bread  which  He  gave  them  for  their  bodies, 
instead  of  inciting  hunger  for  the  bread 
of  the  soul,  produced  in  them  an  ignoble 
satisfaction.  He  would  not  continue 
making  bread  for  their  physical  hunger 
at  the  risk  of  failing  to  become  the  Bread 
of  Life  in  their  souls.  As  for  Himself,  in 
His  hungering  in  the  wilderness,  He  knew 
that  God  would  feed  Him  in  His  own  good 
time.      He  was  not  forsaken  or  forgotten. 

2. 

As  to  Dazzling  the  Populace  by  a  Spectacular 
Miracle. 

The  occasion  for  this  suggestion  was 
found  in  the  fact  of  Christ's  isolation  and 
loneliness.  The  wilderness  in  which  the 
tempter  found  Him  was  a  solitary  place. 
Christ  had  been  there  six  weeks  alone. 
John  the  Baptist  would  not  have  felt  the 
loneliness  as  Jesus  did.  He  loved  the 
desert  life,  and  cared  not  for  the  com- 
panionship of  men.  But  for  one  so  highly 
socialised  as  Jesus  was,  this  isolation  must 
have  been  a  sore  trial.  Then,  too.  His 
aloneness  in  the  wilderness  would  accentu- 
ate in  His  consciousness  the  fact  that  He 


CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS    57 

stood  alone  in  relation  to  His  life-work. 
As  to  disciples  and  a  following  from  the 
people,  He  had  everything  yet  to  win.  He 
knew  that  the  winning  of  them  would 
be  slow  work.  But  now  the  suggestion  is 
made  that  this  work  need  not  be  slow. 
The  thing  can  be  done  in  a  moment  if 
He  will  consent  to  use  His  power  to 
dazzle  the  multitude.  The  great  crowd- 
assembling  centre  of  Palestine  is  Jeru- 
salem ;  thither  the  tribes  go  up.  And 
the  centre  of  interest  in  Jerusalem  is 
the  Temple  ;  the  crowds  flock  there.  At 
times  the  Temple  area  is  black  with  people. 
"Why  not  show  Himself  some  day  at  the 
Temple  top,  when  the  throng  is  dense 
below,  and  while  they  are  gaping  up  in 
wonder  at  Him,  suddenly  descend  through 
the  air  and  stand  in  their  midst?  This 
will  give  Him  at  once  a  powerful  hold 
upon  the  popular  imagination.  The  people 
love  a  spectacle,  and  will  hail  Him  with 
hosannas.  It  will  mean  a  swift  and 
brilliant  escape  from  this  anomaly  of 
solitude  and  loneliness.  Moreover,  it  is 
lyingly  suggested,  this  is  quite  the  fitting 
way  for  the  Messiah  to  make  His  entrance 
upon  His  priestly  ministry.  He  is  Lord  of 
the  Temple,  and  this  should  be  made  clear 
at  once.     It  is  not  for  Him   to   climb  the 


58    CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 

Temple  steps  like  an  ordinary  worshipper ; 
He  should  descend  from  above  with  attend- 
ant angels.  He  must  know,  from  that  look 
which  He  so  recently  had  into  heaven,  that 
cohorts  of  angels  are  ready  to  lackey 
Him.  The  dignity  of  His  person  as  the 
well-pleasing  Son  of  God  demands  this 
course. 

It  was  really  a  diabolical  plot  to  destroy 
Christ's  priestly  service,  by  attempting  to 
kill  in  Him  the  true  priestly  spirit.  In  its 
essence,  the  temptation  of  the  Temple  top 
is  one  which  has  been  practised  upon  suc- 
cessive generations  of  the  sons  of  God. 
It  is  the  Satanic  trick  of  the  ages.  For, 
whenever  a  son  of  God  is  tempted  to 
win  popular  applause  for  its  own  sake,  he 
is  tempted  to  self-degradation.  Power  is 
not  given  us  of  God  that  we  may  dazzle 
people  with  it.  It  is  not  ours  to  play  with. 
A  man  had  better  play  with  a  live  electric 
wire  than  with  his  power  over  the  people, 
or  with  the  people  under  the  spell  of  his 
power.  If  he  trades  upon  their  weak- 
nesses, their  superstitions,  their  prejudices, 
to  win  their  allegiance,  he  delivers  both 
himself  and  them  to  the  devil.  Power  is 
for  service.  A  man  will  get  his  following 
if  he  deserves  it,  and  is  ready  and  capable 
to  lead  ;  but  it  is  not  for  Christ's  disciples 


CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS    59 

to  win  it  in  any  other  than  Christ's  way — 
the  way  of  patient,  loving  ministry. 

3. 

Regarding  the  Achievement  of  Political 
Distinction. 

The  suggestion  was  that  Christ  should 
strike  at  once  for  Caesar's  seat.  The  time 
was  ripe  for  revolt.  The  popular  dis- 
content was  deep  and  widespread.  The 
land  was  seething .  with  rebellion.  In  the 
political  temper  of  the  time  it  only  needed 
that  a  great  leader  should  appear  and  raise 
the  standard  of  revolt  for  myriads  to  flock 
to  his  banner.  And  who  so  competent  to 
lead  as  this  picturesque  and  magnificent 
personality?  If  He  will  head  the  move- 
ment, the  highways  leading  to  Rome  will 
presently  be  thronged  with  tens  of  thou- 
sands, ready  to  follow  Him  to  death.  This 
was  not  the  only  time  when  such  a  sug- 
gestion was  made  to  Christ.  The  people  of 
Galilee  afterwards  begged  Him  to  take  this 
step.  They,  too,  saw  the  power  of  a  Caesar 
in  Him.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  had  He 
used  His  power  in  that  direction.  He  could 
have  hurled  the  Tyrant  of  the  Tiber  from 
his  throne,  and  seated  Himself  in  his  place. 

But  the  suggestion  had  no   charms  for 


60    CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 

Christ.  To  play  the  Csssar  for  a  season 
would  mean  nothing  to  Him  who  came  to 
be  the  King  of  all  kingdoms  for  ever.  The 
retinue  of  followers  who  should  march 
beneath  the  banner  of  the  saviourhood,  to 
be  achieved  by  the  way  of  the  Cross,  would 
far  outnumber  the  subjects  of  any  earthly 
sovereignty.  The  revenues  which  woulci 
accrue  to  Him  in  the  love-loyalty  of  His 
redeemed,  would  far  outweigh  the  tribute 
to  be  exacted  from  any  earthly  empire. 
But  Christ's  sovereignty  must  be  won 
through  suffering.  His  mastery  must  come 
through  His  ministry.  His  crown  must  be 
gained  by  His  cross.  He  is  not  seeking  a 
place  for  Himself,  He  is  seeking  a  place 
beside  Himself  for  us,  that  we  may  dwell 
with  Him  in  the  favour  and  fellowship  of 
the  Father. 

Is  not  the  lesson  from  all  this  very  clear  ? 
If  God  has  entrusted  us  with  any  power,  it 
is  that  we  may  exercise  it  on  the  highest 
possible  level  of  helpfulness.  To  devote  it 
to  lower  ends  is  to  abuse  it  and  ultimately 
to  lose  it.  If  you  have  power  to  make 
bread,  make  it  for  others  and  eat  your 
share  with  them !  Make  it  for  wife  and 
children,  and  for  such  others  as  have  no 
skill  or  power  to  make  it  for  themselves  I 
The  world  is  full  of  them,  and  God  has  sent 


CHRIST  IN  THE  WILDERNESS    61 

you  to  them.  By  feeding  them,  the  eating 
of  your  own  portion  will  be  a  sweet  and 
wholesome  experience.  If  you  have  power 
to  excite  the  admiration  or  win  the  allegi- 
ance of  men,  have  a  care  of  that !  You 
must  not  trifle  with  your  fellows.  If  you 
have  any  kingship  or  queenship  in  you, 
make  sure  to  use  it  for  redemptive  ends ! 
Sing  no  song  that  is  not  fit  for  Christ  to 
hear  !  Paint  no  picture  which  you  would 
not  dare  to  hold  up  before  His  gaze ! 
Write  no  book  which  you  would  not  lay 
upon  His  altar !  If  you  can  hold  a  seat  in 
Parliament,  hold  it  for  your  country's  good  ! 
The  moment  you  begin  to  use  it  for 
"miserable  aims  that  end  with  self,"  you 
forfeit  your  right  to  it.  "Follow  the 
Christ:  else,  wherefore  born?" 


CHRIST  AT  THE   WEDDING  FEAST 
IN   CANA 


"This  beginning   of    his    signs    did    Jesus    in   Cana 
of  Galilee,  and  manifested  his  glory." — JoH^f  ii.  11. 


CHAPTER  V 

CHRIST   AT   THE   WEDDING   FEAST    IN    CANA 

1. 

The  Changing  of  the  Water  into  Wine  mani^ 
fested  the  Glory  of  Christ's  Power. 

By  that  act  He  showed  Himself  to  be 
the  Lord  of  Nature.  As  the  immortal  line 
of  Crashaw  has  it — 

•'The  conscious  water  saw  its  God,  and  blushed." 

This  act  of  power  flings  back  a  light  upon 
the  opening  words  of  John's  Gospel :  "  In 
the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word 
was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God. 
The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God. 
All  things  were  made  by  Him ;  and  without 
Him  was  not  anything  made  that  hath  been 
made.  In  Him  was  life ;  and  the  life  was 
the  light  of  men."  To  John's  mind  the 
miracle   at   Cana  was  a  regal   gesture   de- 

6  66 


66       CHRIST  AT  THE  WEDDING 

noting  Christ's  sovereignty  as  Nature's 
Lord.  By  reflecting  upon  this  deed  and 
other  deeds  of  Christ's,  John  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  universe  consisted  in 
Him,  and  that  He  was  God.  Not  only  did 
he  think  of  Jesus  as  able  to  intervene  with 
creative  and  energizing  power  at  any  point 
in  Nature's  processes,  but  as  present  in  them 
all,  the  very  spirit  of  their  life.  And  he 
regarded  Him  as  holding  the  same  relation 
to  men.  From  Christ  flowed  all  the  tides 
of  being.  This  is  the  conception  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel  from  beginning  to  end.  It 
gives  colour  to  everything  which  John 
writes  concerning  the  Blessed  One.  It 
determines  his  choice  of  material  for  his 
narrative.  Constantly  he  looks  upon  Christ 
as  the  animating  spirit  of  nature  and  the 
Life  and  Light  of  men.  Around  these 
conceptions  he  groups  his  subject-matter. 
"Many  other  signs  therefore  did  Jesus  in 
the  presence  of  His  disciples,  which  are  not 
written  in  this  book ;  but  these  are  written 
that  ye  may  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God ;  and  that  believing  ye  may 
have  life  in  His  name." 

John's  thought  of  Christ  as  the  fountain- 
head  of  all  life  for  nature  and  for  man,  is 
the  great  first-truth  which  the  modern  mind 
most  needs  to  grip.     In  this  thought  will 


FEAST  IN  CANA  67 

be  found  the  regulating  and  formative 
principle  of  Christian  theology,  and  the 
heart  of  evangelical  religion.  It  is  when 
we  take  this  view  of  Jesus  that  the 
need  of  personal  union  with  Him,  for  the 
nourishment  of  spiritual  life,  is  borne  in 
most  deeply  upon  our  consciousness.  Why 
should  it  be  thought  strange  that  man 
needs  the  impact  of  Christ's  Spirit  upon 
him  in  order  to  come  to  fullness  of  life? 
If  we  accept  John's  view  of  Christ,  man 
shares  this  necessity  with  every  created 
thing  that  lives.  One  power,  and  that  a 
divine  power,  sows  life  in  sea,  in  soil,  in 
soul.  The  energy  which  sprouts  the  seed 
in  the  sod,  and  forms  the  bud  upon  the 
plant,  and  unfurls  the  emerald  banners  of 
the  leaves  upon  the  boughs,  is  identical 
with  the  energy  which  makes  for  beauty  of 
holiness  in  the  human  soul,  and  brings  the 
fruits  of  righteousness  to  perfection  in  the 
moral  life  of  man.  The  stir  in  the  bulb  of 
the  lily,  by  which  it  breaks  its  bed  and 
emerges  into  light,  the  stir  in  the  brain 
of  the  child,  by  which  it  comes  to  know- 
ledge of  itself  and  of  the  world  around  it, 
the  stir  in  the  heart  of  the  penitent,  by 
which  he  breaks  from  the  bondage  of  sin 
and  rises  into  the  fellowship  of  God,  are  all 
due  to  the  inworking  of  one  divine  spirit. 


68       CHRIST  AT  THE   WEDDING 

Wherever  we  find  a  manifestation  of  life, 
we  are  to  recognise  a  spiritual  force  at 
work.  This,  indeed,  is  the  great  first-truth 
set  before  us  upon  the  opening  pages  of  the 
Bible.  In  the  earliest  chapters  of  Genesis, 
world-beauty  and  soul-bloom  are  traced  to 
a  single  source.  There  is  a  notable  parallel 
between  the  stories  told  there  of  the  begin- 
ning of  life  in  nature  and  in  man.  Before 
the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face 
of  the  waters,  "the  earth  was  waste  and 
void."  No  light  shone,  no  flower  bloomed, 
no  bird  sang,  until  over  the  weltering  chaos 
the  Spirit  brooded.  It  was  the  sam^  in  the 
case  of  man.  He,  too,  was  waste  and  void 
until  the  Spirit  imparted  the  vital  soul- 
spark.  It  was  when  the  Lord  God 
"breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of 
life"  that  the  light  of  reason  and  of  con- 
science leaped  up  within  the  hitherto  dark 
temple  of  his  body,  "and  man  became  a 
living  soul." 

This  great  first-truth  of  the  Book  of 
Genesis  and  of  the  Gospel  according  to 
John  flashes  forth  in  the  words  of  Jesus 
to  Nicodemus :  "  Marvel  not  that  I  said 
unto  thee.  Ye  must  be  born  again.  The 
wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth  and  thou 
hearest  the  voice  thereof,  but  knowest  not 
whence  it   cometh   and  whither   it  goeth : 


FEAST  IN  CANA  69 

so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit." 
It  is  no  more  strange  that  man  should 
need  to  be  born  from  above  in  order  to 
see  the  kingdom  of  God,  than  that  the 
earth  should  need  the  miracle  of  the  spring- 
time in  order  to  bring  forth  her  fruits. 
Man  can  make  a  hot-house,  but  only  God 
can  make  a  spring. 

This  manifestation  of  the  glory  of  Christ's 
pov^er  which  the  Cana  miracle  affords,  not 
only  accentuates  our  need  of  personal, 
spiritual  union  with  Him,  but  also  begets 
a  mighty  Hope  concerning  the  Fullness  of 
Life  to  follow  upon  that  union.  When  we 
think  of  the  abundant  life  which  is  mani- 
fested in  the  Nature-world  around  us — the 
vast  and  luxuriant  forest-growths,  the 
valleys  filled  with  corn,  the  prairies  billowy 
with  wheat,  the  mountains  clothed  with 
pastures ;  when  we  remember  that  over 
all  the  earth  the  springtime  comes,  year 
after  year,  for  centuries  and  milleniums 
without  a  failure,  we  get  a  tremendously 
impressive  reminder  of  the  infinite  fullness 
of  life  in  Him  who  is  the  source  of  all.  In 
the  light  of  this  recurrent  miracle  of  the 
springtime  we  behold  new  deeps  of  mean- 
ing in  the  words  of  Jesus,  "I  came  that 
they  may  have  life,  and  that  they  may  have 
it  more  abundantly."     Shall  the  sparrow  be 


70       CHRIST   AT  THE   WEDDING 

fed  and  the  soul  be  famished?  Will  He 
clothe  the  grass  of  the  field  in  splendour 
and  leave  the  spirit  of  man  in  squalor? 
To  entertain  the  grim  suspicion  for  a 
moment  is  preposterous.  In  Him  there 
is  a  store  of  vital  power,  "Enough  for 
each,  enough  for  all,  enough  for  ever- 
more." 

This  fullness  of  power  resident  in  Christ 
is  also  the  ground  of  our  hope  for  ultimate 
Deliverance  from  the  Blight  of  Sin.  From 
my  study  window  in  Toronto  I  used  to  look 
each  day,  during  a  long  Canadian  winter, 
upon  a  tree  to  which  the  dead  leaves  clung 
with  stubborn  grip.  Autumn  gales  could 
not  shake  them  off ;  drenching  rains  could 
not  wash  them  off;  pelting  hailstorms 
could  not  beat  them  off;  winter  blizzards 
could  not  tear  them  off ;  but  when  the 
springtime  came  and  the  sap  began  to 
flow  within  the  tree,  new  buds  formed 
and  pushed  them  off.  They  fell  before  the 
conquering  touch  of  life.  The  expulsive 
power  of  an  irresistible  vitality  stripped 
the  tatters  from  the  tree  and  converted  it 
into  a  bower  of  bewitching  greenery.  As 
old  leaves  cling  to  trees  so  do  old  habits 
cling  to  the  souls  of  men.  Rags  of  a  dead 
past  tatter  them.  Winds  of  emotion  cannot 
shake  them  off ;  rains  of  repentance  cannot 


FEAST  IN  CANA  71 

wash  them  off;  hailstorms  of  affliction 
cannot  pelt  them  off ;  but  "  the  spirit  of 
life  in  Christ  Jesus"  surging  up  within 
the  soul,  can  crowd  them  off. 

Also  from  the  fact  of  Christ's  power 
as  the  Lord  of  Life,  our  Hope  of  Immor- 
tality springs  winged  and  radiant.  One 
dark  December  day  a  little  party  of  us 
visited  Westminster  Abbey.  It  was  such 
a  London  day  as  puts  a  chill  into  the 
marrow  of  your  bones  and  a  gloom  into 
your  soul.  An  hour  spent  amid  the  royal 
tombs  left  us  dull  and  spiritless.  We  had 
looked  upon  venerable  and  impressive 
things,  exquisite  carvings  in  oak  smd 
marble,  recumbent  effigies  of  kings  and 
queens  in  alabaster.  But  it  was  all  dark 
and  musty  and  depressing.  It  all  smelt 
of  death.  Leaving  the  tombs,  we  went 
over  to  the  Poets'  Corner,  and  upon  the 
slab,  beneath  which  rests  the  dust  of 
Robert  Browning,  we  saw  a  wreath  of 
roses  lying  fresh  and  sweet.  On  the  silken 
ribbon  which  bound  the  wreath,  we  read 
these  words :  "  Never  say  of  me  that  I  am 
dead."  To  us  the  most  eloquent  thing  in  the 
Abbey  at  that  moment  was  the  wreath  of 
roses  on  the  poet's  tomb.  It  was  the  single 
suggestion  of  life  in  that  great  gathering- 
place  of  Britain's  illustrious  dead.     But  it 


72       CHRIST  AT  THE  WEDDING 

was  enough  to  warm  our  hearts.  It  inter- 
preted everything  else.  Presently  we 
walked  out  into  the  chill  mist  again,  but 
we  carried  a  glow  within  our  souls.  He 
who  made  the  roses  bloom  would  not  deny, 
we  were  assured,  the  gift  of  life  to  man. 
The  roses,  though  clipped  from  the  plant 
on  which  they  grew,  were  still  fresh  and 
Bweet.  And  the  soul  of  Browning,  we 
believed,  was  fresher  and  sweeter  still, 
where  in  that  other  life  he  walked  with 
Christ.  The  life  Christ  gives  is  too  potent 
to  be  choked  by  the  dust  of  the  tomb.  In 
our  experience  that  day,  Christ's  "  life  was 
the  light  of  men." 

2. 

The  Miracle  at  Cana  Manifested  the  Glory 
of  Christ's  Sympathy. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  Christ's  first 
miracle  was  wrought,  not  to  save  a  life,  or 
redeem  a  soul,  but  to  relieve  a  temporary 
domestic  embarrassment.  The  failure  of 
the  wine  was  merely  a  social  inconvenience 
likely  to  somewhat  mar  the  wedding 
festivities  and  perhaps  humiliate  a  sensi- 
tive host  in  the  eyes  of  his  guests.  The 
kindness  of  Jesus  in  relieving  the  situation 
associates  Him  for  all  time  with  the  simple 


FEAST  IN  Cx'^.NA  73 

joys  and  sorrows  of  humble  domestic  life. 
We  cannot  forget  that  only  a  little  while 
before  He  had  refused  to  use  His  creative 
power  to  make  bread  for  His  own  hunger. 
Now  He  employs  it  to  make  wine  for 
others'  joy.  It  is  of  a  piece  with  His  whole 
career  of  wondrous  unselfishness.  He  made 
everything  for  others,  nothing  for  Himself. 
The  same  chapter  in  Matthew  which  re- 
ports five  miracles  wrought  for  the  relief 
of  other  needy  lives,  records  His  saying, 
*'  The  Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to  lay 
His  head." 

It  is  a  marvellous  interblending  of  the 
glory  of  power  and  the  glory  of  sympathy 
which  this  first  miracle  displays.  And  each 
glory  enhances  the  other.  The  one  thing 
necessary  to  complete  the  glory  of  strength 
is  sympathy.  The  one  thing  necessary  to 
complete  the  glory  of  sympathy  is  strength. 
Where  power  is  pitiless  you  have  a  carnival 
of  destructiveness  ;  where  pity  is  powerless 
you  have  an  agony  of  helplessness ;  where 
power  and  pity  meet  and  blend  you  have  a 
triumph  of  beneficence.  Strength  without 
sympathy  brutalises  men ;  sympathy  with- 
out strength  effeminates  them ;  but  strength 
controlled  by  sympathy  and  sympathy 
enabled  by  strength  makes  men  heroic. 
Ruskin,    in    "  Modern     Painters,"     writes : 


74       CHRIST  AT  THE  WEDDING 

"Elephantine  strength  may  drive  its  way 
through  a  forest  and  feel  no  touch  of  the 
boughs,  but  the  white  skin  of  Homer's 
Atrides  would  have  felt  a  bent  rose  leaf, 
yet  subdue  its  feeling  in  glow  of  battle,  and 
behave  itself  like  iron.  I  do  not  mean  to 
call  an  elephant  a  vulgar  animal,  but  if  you 
think  about  him  carefully  you  will  find 
that  his  non-vulgarity  consists  in  such 
gentleness  as  is  possible  to  elephantine 
nature ;  not  in  his  insensitive  hide,  nor  in 
his  clumsy  foot,  but  in  the  way,  he  will  lift 
his  foot  if  a  child  lies  in  his  way  and  in  his 
sensitive  trunk,  and  still  more  sensitive 
mind,  and  capability  of  pique  on  points  of 
honour.  In  fact,  heroic  strength  is  not 
conceivable  without  such  delicacy." 

The  spirit  of  sympathetic  helpfulness 
manifested  in  Christ's  first  miracle  was 
characteristic  of  all  His  after  deeds  of 
power.  All  His  miracles  are  remarkable 
for  their  refining  and  transforming  grace. 
Whatever  change  they  w^rought  heightened 
the  value  of  the  thing  He  touched.  The 
water  in  the  stone  pots  at  Cana  was 
intended  to  be  used  for  washing.  It  was 
there,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  Jews, 
for  "purifying."  What  they  meant  for 
outward  cleansing  He  transformed  into 
a   means    of    inward   strengthening.     The 


FEAST  IN  CANA  75 

miracle  was  thus  a  "  sign  "  of  His  spiritual 
mission.  It  was  a  token  of  the  enriching 
and  ennobling  change  which  should  pass, 
at  His  touch,  upon  all  the  common  things 
of  life,  and  the  new  relation  He  should  give 
them  to  the  inner  needs  of  man. 

This  first  miracle  of  Jesus  bears  certain 
deep  and  subtle  affinities  to  His  last  par- 
able— that  of  the  Vine  and  the  Branches. 
Is  it  not,  indeed,  the  function  of  the  Vine 
to  change  water  into  wine  ?  What  the 
grape-vine  does  with  the  water  poured  out 
by  the  clouds,  is  it  not  essentially  the  same 
thing  that  Jesus  did  with  the  water  poured 
from  the  jars  at  Cana  ?  The  change  which 
Jesus  wrought  was  instantaneous,  and, 
effected  without  the  intervention  of  a 
material  vine-stalk.  Jesus  Himself  took 
the  place  of  the  vine-stalk  that  day,  and, 
by  virtue  of  the  energy  resident  in  His  own 
spirit,  abbreviated  the  processes  of  Nature 
to  produce  the  surprising  result.  What  a 
glory  streams  forth  from  the  parable  when 
we  interpret  it  in  the  light  of  the  miracle  ! 
Christ,  our  Vine-stalk,  is  for  us  the  alchemist 
of  life.  If  we  abide  in  Him,  whatever 
flows  into  us  must  flow  through  Him.  He 
becomes  the  mediating  and  transforming 
medium  by  which  all  things  are  made 
sweet  and  wholesoine  and   nourishing  for 


76    CPIRIST  AT  THE  WEDDING  FEAST 

us.  Snow  and  rain  may  fall  upon  a  vine- 
yard, bitter  juices  may  permeate  its  soil, 
dead  things  may  be  buried  there,  but  the 
vine-stalk  sends  nothing  but  sweet  sap 
into  the  branches.  Out  of  afflictions,  out 
of  disappointments,  out  of  dead  hopes  and 
decayed  ambitions  Christ  can  extract  for 
those  who  abide  in  Him  the  wine  of  joy. 

One  of  the  finest  sights  at  Hampton 
Court  is  the  royal  grape-vine  when  loaded 
with  its  summer  clusters.  As  a  party  of 
Americans  were  admiring  the  vine,  one  of 
their  number  called  to  the  keeper  and 
asked,  "  Could  you  not  give  us  a  few  of 
those  grapes  ? "  The  answer  was  given 
very  gently  and  courteously,  but  it  was 
decisive  and  significant.  "There  is  only 
one  man  in  the  kingdom,  sir,  who  could 
give  you  grapes  from  this  vine."  "  And 
who  is  he  ? "  the  visitor  inquired.  "  His 
Majesty  the  King."  There  is  only  one 
Man  in  the  universe  who  can  give  you  the 
ripe  and  perfect  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  His 
Imperial  Majesty,  the  Christ. 

"  This  beginning  of  His  signs  did  Jesus  in 
Cana  of  Galilee,  and  manifested  His  glory." 


CHRIST  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUE  OF 
NAZARETH 


"  And  he  came  to  Nazareth,  where  he  had  been 
brought  up :  and  he  entered,  as  his  custom  was,  into 
the  synagogue  on  the  sabbath  day,  and  stood  up  to 
read." — Luke  iv.  16. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CHRIST  IN  THE   SYNAGOGUE  OF  NAZARETH 

A  TENDER  human  interest  attaches  to 
this  visit  of  Jesus  to  Nazareth. 
Doubtless,  one  influence  which  strongly 
drew  Him  there  was  His  yearning  desire  to 
see  His  mother.  The  bond  between  Jesus 
and  Mary  was  of  the  closest  and  most 
affectionate  kind.  She  must  have  been  a 
woman  of  rare  purity  of  mind  and  unusual 
spiritual  capacity  to  have  been  selected  for 
the  honour  of  becoming  the  mother  of  the 
Messiah.  If  our  Roman  Catholic  friends  go 
to  an  unwarranted  extreme  in  ascribing  to 
her  an  almost  equal  rank  with  Christ,  and 
in  paying  her  divine  honours,  Protestants 
swing  to  the  other  extreme  in  practically 
setting  her  aside,  in  their  thought,  from  all 
relation  to  the  redemptive  mission  of  her 
son.  Yet  there  was  no  one,  not  excepting 
the  beloved  disciple,  John,  who  understood 
Him  better,  or  sympathised  more  fully  with 
His  purpose.     Mary  was  always  laying  up 

79 


80      CHRIST  IN  THE   SYNAGOGUE 

His  words  and  pondering  them  in  her  heart. 
With  her  maternal  intuitions,  wrought  upon 
and  disciplined  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  she  must 
have  seen  deeply  into  the  secret  of  the  life 
of  her  holy  son.  From  her,  in  all  pro- 
bability, Luke  got  the  information  given  in 
his  gospel  concerning  our  Lord's  infancy, 
as  he  also  got  the  story  of  this  visit.  We 
may  be  very  sure  that  Jesus  loved  her 
more  tenderly  than  any  other  son  ever 
loved  a  mother.  She  was  never  permitted 
to  bear  any  burdens  from  which  He  could 
give  relief.  In  filial  respect  and  in  affec- 
tionate attention  His  relations  to  her  were 
ideal. 

They  tell  us  that  the  hill  behind  the 
town  of  Nazareth  is  a  wonderful  place  for 
wild  flowers.  Often,  as  a  child,  must  Jesus 
have  plucked  them  for  His  beautiful 
mother;  and  now  that  He  has  grown  to 
manhood,  now  that  He  has  entered  upon 
His  public  career,  now  that  He  has  climbed 
the  mountain-tops  of  spiritual  vision,  shall 
He  not  carry  home  to  her  some  of  the 
fragrant  thought-flowers  which  He  has 
plucked  upon  the  heights  ?  Naturally  there 
would  be  much  that  He  would  want  to  say 
to  Mary,  and  we  may  be  sure  that  He 
would  turn  His  steps  towards  Nazareth 
with    keen    delight.      After    the    thrilling 


OF  NAZARETH  81 

experiences  at  the  Jordan  and  in  the 
wilderness,  and  after  the  brief  tour  in 
GaUlee,  where  He  had  won  quick  fame,  a 
httle  visit  with  His  mother  would  be  sur- 
passing sweet  to  Him  and  to  her. 

The  home  itself  would  also  appeal  to 
Him.  It  was  the  only  home  He  could 
remember,  and  He  loved  it.  He  would 
sleep  again  in  His  own  bed.  He  had 
known  none  like  it  since  He  left  it.  Mary 
herself  would  make  it  for  Him,  and  see  that 
it  was  aired  and  comfortable.  The  simple 
meals  would  be  prepared  by  her  own  hands. 
And  there  would  be  hours  of  close,  earnest, 
reverent  conversation.  He  would  want  to 
see  His  brothers,  too,  and  tell  them  some- 
thing of  His  experiences  in  the  strange, 
new  life. 

He  would  have  a  tender  feeling  also  for 
His  fellow-townsmen.  Though  Nazareth 
was  a  wicked  little  town  (most  little  towns 
are  wicked),  there  must  have  been  some 
good  men  there.  We  do  not  know  that 
He  had  ever  enjoyed  an  intimate  friend- 
ship among  them,  but  we  cannot  doubt 
His  loving  concern  for  their  spiritual 
enlightenment. 

And  now  the  Sabbath  day  has  come, 
a  Sabbath  in  the  sweet  Palestinian  spring- 
time, when  all  the  air  is  full  of  balm,  and 
7 


82      CHRIST  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUE 

all  the  land  is  bright  with  flowers.  He 
has  taken  His  place  amongst  the  wor- 
shippers in  the  synagogue.  At  a  signal 
from  the  ruler,  who  would  be  quick  to 
notice  the  presence  of  an  honoured  member 
whose  face  had  been  much  missed  of  late, 
He  stands  up  in  the  appointed  place  to  read 
the  Scripture  lesson  for  the  day.  The  roll 
of  the  book  of  Isaiah  having  been  delivered 
unto  Him,  He  unwinds  it  until  He  comes  to 
the  sixty-first  chapter,  when  He  proceeds 
to  read  the  glowingly  prophetic  words  of 
the  first  two  verses.  According  to  the 
custom  of  the  time,  He  stood  up  to  read, 
but  sat  down  to  expound  the  portion  He 
had  read. 

The  earlier  portion  of  the  address  which 
He  delivered  proved  to  be  a  spellbinder. 
The  opening  sentences  chained  the  atten- 
tion of  the  congregation.  They  "fastened 
their  eyes "  on  Him  in  wonder.  Their 
enthusiasm  was  speedily  aroused,  so  that 
they  hung  with  delight  upon  His  gracious 
words.  By  nod  and  smile  and  whispered 
word  they  showed  their  appreciation  of 
His  treatment  of  the  beautiful  Messianic 
passage.  It  was  one  with  which  they 
were  all  familiar,  and  it  voiced  their  most 
cherished  hopes.  It  had  often  awakened 
music  in  their  hearts,  but  they  had  never 


OF  NAZARETH  83 

seen  its  beauty  so  clearly,  or  felt  its  force 
so  deeply,  as  in  those  moments  when  Jesus 
gave  it  exposition.  In  this,  the  earlier 
portion  of  His  discourse,  Jesus  was  evi- 
dently dealing  with  the  general  scope  of 
the  passage,  and  pointing  out  its  large 
promises  of  relief  for  the  bound  and 
bruised  and  burdened  life  of  Israel. 
Whether  He  had  ever  before  expounded 
the  Scriptures  in  that  synagogue  we  do 
not  know ;  but  if  He  had  done  so,  one 
would  suppose  that  previous  tastes  of  His 
quality  as  a  teacher  would  have  led  them 
to  expect  a  treat  from  "  Joseph's  son." 

But  pleasure  and  approval  were  of  short 
duration.  A  sudden  turn  was  given  to 
the  address,  and  instantly  the  congregation 
was  aghast  with  consternation.  Quietly, 
but  distinctly,  He  announces  that  He  Him- 
self is  the  Messiah  pictured  in  the  passage 
just  expounded.  The  statement  was  a 
spark  flung  into  a  powder-magazine. 
There  was  a  moment's  silence,  followed 
by  a  roar  of  angry  and  protesting  voices. 
Never  had  such  a  bomb  been  exploded 
in  that  synagogue  before.  They  could 
scarcely  believe  the  evidence  of  their 
senses.  Old  patriarchs,  accustomed  to 
yield  themselves  to  quiet  reverie  in  the 
house  of  God,  bristle   up   and   choke   with 


84      CHRIST  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUE 

rage.  Younger  men  scowl  and  clinch  their 
fists.  This  carpenter  neighbour  of  theirs, 
who  has  hitherto  lived  so  serenely  in  their 
midst,  must  have  had  his  brain  turned 
during  his  recent  travels.  But  no,  he  has 
not  the  ways  of  a  madman ;  he  is  rather 
a  shameless  blasphemer,  mocking  at  their 
most  sacred  Scriptures.  But  they  know 
how  to  deal  with  this  wolf  in  sheep's 
clothing.  They  will  make  quick  disposi- 
tion of  Him  and  of  His  claims.  One  simple 
test  will  decide  the  question  of  His  claims. 
He  must  work  a  miracle  at  their  dictation. 
If  He  has  the  power  ascribed  to  Messiah, 
He  must  use  it  now  to  give  them  an 
unmistakable  sign.  They  have  heard 
rumours  of  miracles  wrought  by  Him  in 
Capernaum ;  but  Capernaum  is  far  away, 
and  rumour  is  unreliable.  Let  Him  give 
them  an  exhibition  here  and  now  of  His 
supernatural  power.  It  is  the  wilderness 
suggestion  over  again.  Jesus,  reading  their 
thoughts  before  they  can  find  expression 
in  speech,  gives  His  answer.  It  is  an 
emphatic  refusal  to  make  such  use  of  His 
power.  He  will  not  call  upon  it  at  the 
bidding  of  angry  unbelievers.  He  does 
not  cater  to  such  a  temper ;  it  would  be 
both  useless  and  degrading.  He  may  use 
that  power  to  encourage  faith,  but  not  to 


OF  NAZARETH  85 

batter  down  prejudice,  or  disarm  hatred, 
or  satisfy  a  vulgar  curiosity.  He  will  save 
His  miracles  for  such  timies  and  places  and 
purposes  as  befit  His  spiritual  mission. 
Nazareth,  His  own  home-town  is  not  good 
ground  for  miracle  working.  The  invete- 
rate scepticism  which  neighbours  enter- 
tain concerning  the  high  calling  and  destiny 
of  those  whom  they  have  known  long  and 
familiarly  is  proverbial.  A  man  must  win 
his  recognition  from  the  outside  world 
before  his  own  townsmen  will  greatly 
believe  in  Him.  Elijah  found  it  so,  and 
Elisha  too.  They  did  not  work  their 
miracles  at  home.  Jesus  puts  Himself  in 
the  line  of  prophetic  succession  in  refusing 
to  cast  His  pearls  down  there  for  those 
swine  to  trample  on.  So  they  have  their 
answer,  and  it  adds  fuel  to  the  fires 
of  their  wrath.  Enough  of  this ;  the 
impostor  must  be  crushed.  Nazareth  is 
already  in  sufficiently  bad  repute,  without 
breeding  within  its  borders  a  monster  of 
blasphemy  like  this  and  turning  Him  loose 
upon  the  nation.  So  they  rise  up  in  a 
body,  surround  Him,  and  sweep  Him  along 
with  them  to  the  brow  of  the  hill  over- 
looking the  town,  intending  to  fling  Him 
headlong  down  the  cliff.  But  lo !  their 
hands     are    holden.      With     that     strange 


86     CHRIST  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUE 

power  which  often  enables  a  cahn,  majestic 
personality  to  quell  the  frenzy  of  a  mob, 
even  by  a  gesture  or  a  look,  Jesus  turns 
to  them,  and  for  a  moment  awes  them 
by  the  regal  dignity  of  His  bearing.  That 
moment  is  sufficient  to  defeat  them.  While 
one  is  waiting  for  another  to  rush  upon 
Him  and  cast  Him  from  the  cliff.  He 
passes  through  the  midst  of  them  and 
goes  His  way. 

Let  us  not  blame  them  overmuch,  those 
mistaken  men  of  Nazareth !  It  was  not 
in  human  nature  for  them  to  do  much 
differently.  Under  similar  circumstances 
the  same  thing  would  have  happened  in 
England. 

That  scene  has  long  since  passed  into 
history.  Of  the  men  who  enacted  it  but 
one  name  survives.  That  name  shines  in 
splendour  now  above  every  name  that  is 
named.  We  believe  to-day  that  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  was  what  He  claimed  to  be — the 
Messiah  of  Israel  and  the  Saviour  of  the 
world.  The  robe  of  prophecy  which  He 
that  day  wrapped  about  Himself  befits  His 
form.  The  centuries  have  proclaimed  Him 
Lord.  Two  milleniums  have  placed  their 
crowns  upon  His  brow.  And  this  because 
He  has  proved  in  human  experience  His 
power    to    carry    out    the    programme    of 


OF  NAZARETH  87 

service  which  He  announced  in  the  syna- 
gogue at  Nazareth.  He  has  shown  Him- 
self to  be  the  Comforter  of  the  poor,  the 
Healer  of  the  blind,  the  Deliverer  of  the 
bound. 

1. 

Jesus  is  the  Poor  Man's  Friend. 

Born  into  a  poor  man's  family,  working 
at  a  poor  man's  trade,  living  on  a  poor 
man's  fare.  He  has  won  His  largest  fol- 
lowing from  the  poor  man's  ranks.  No- 
thing but  a  caricature  of  the  "  Good 
Tidings "  which  He  proclaimed  and  a 
corruption  of  the  Church  which  He 
established  can  ever  alienate  the  world's 
poor  people  from  the  Christ.  It  is  true 
that  in  France  and  in  Russia  to-day  tens 
of  thousands  of  the  common  people  curse 
the  Church  and  openly  avow  their  desire 
to  crush  the  Christian  religion.  But  it  is 
not  the  real  Christ  with  whom  they  have 
broken,  nor  is  it  the  true  Church  which 
they  have  renounced.  It  is  the  ghastly 
misrepresentation  of  Christ  and  His  Church 
given  by  a  tyrannous  and  corrupt  priest- 
hood from  which  they  have  revolted.  Let 
them  see  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels  and 
they  will  fall  at  His  feet.  Let  them  see 
the   Church    in    her    early    simplicity   and 


88      CHRIST  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUE 

faith  and  sympathy,  and  they  will  flock  to 
her  shelter  and  communion  like  doves  to 
their  windows.  The  coign  of  vantage  for 
preaching  the  gospel  to  the  poor  is  the 
carpenter-shop  of  Nazareth.  It  is  not  the 
Christ  with  the  invented  nimbus  about  His 
brow  who  can  win  the  working-men  of 
the  world,  but  the  Christ  with  tools  in 
His  hands  and  the  sweat  of  toil  upon  His 
face. 

The  gospel  which  Jesus  proclaimed  is  a 
gospel  to  ennoble  the  poor  man's  lot.  It 
teaches  him  a  new  self-respect;  it  pro- 
claims the  dignity  of  labour ;  it  puts  a 
premium  upon  manhood  and  discounts  the 
value  of  gold ;  it  reminds  him  that  pro- 
perty cannot  be  weighed  in  the  scales 
against  character;  it  shows  him  that 
character  may  find  its  motive  and  its  dis- 
cipline in  a  cottage  as  well  as  in  a  palace ; 
it  teaches  him  that  heaven  opens  as  wide 
and  free  above  the  poor  man's  roof  as  over 
the  mansions  of  the  rich.  It  puts  a  golden 
ladder  at  the  poor  man's  feet,  on  which  he 
may  climb  to  the  full  height  of  his  possi- 
bilities as  a  son  of  God.  So  effective  has 
the  gospel  been  in  persuading  men  of  these 
realities  that  thousands  of  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  wealth  have  voluntarily  dis- 
possessed themselves   of   riches  to  become 


OF  NAZARETH  89 

in  fuller  measure  the  children  of  the  Lord 
But  even  where  poverty  is  of  necessity 
and  not  of  choice ;  where  it  presses  and 
pinches  and  cramps ;  where  it  means  lack 
of  food,  and  clothing,  and  medicine,  and 
sunshine,  and  fresh  air,  as  it  means  so 
often  in  the  crowded  cities  of  the  world ; 
where  it  is  the  dark  shadow  that  follows 
man's  greed  and  cruelty  and  lust ;  where 
it  is  most  pathetic,  most  tragic,  most 
sullen,  most  hopeless ;  even  there  the  gospel 
taught  by  Him  who  "  had  not  where  to 
lay  His  head"  can  bring  cheer  and  hope. 
Oomt^  instituted  what  he  termed  "  Man's 
Supper."  He  and  his  disciples  would  some- 
times celebrate  it  by  sitting  down  to  a  meal 
of  bread  and  water,  in  memory,  they  said, 
of  the  many  who  could  procure  no  more 
than  bread  and  water  for  their  needs.  It 
was  a  noble  sentiment,  and  one  to  be 
applauded  by  every  lover  of  humanity. 
But  in  so  far  as  it  was  intended  to  dis- 
place the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
it  was,  to  say  the  least,  a  dismal  mistake. 
For  it  still  remains  true  in  Christian 
experience  that  the  real  "  Man's  Supper " 
is  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  turns  the 
thought  of  the  celebrant,  however  poor  he 
may  be,  to  Him  who  gave  Himself  to  be 
the  Bread  of  Life  for  all  mankind. 


90      CHRIST  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUE 

2. 

Jesus  is  the  World's  Great  Healer. 

The  inaugural  message  at  Nazareth 
predicts  a  double  work  of  healing.  It 
proclaims  the  Messiah  as  physician  both  to 
heart  and  mind.  His  mission  is  equally 
to  "  the  broken-hearted "  and  to  "  the 
blind."  These  ministries  are  intimately 
related.  Broken  hearts  are  frequently  the 
result  of  blinded  minds.  Half  our  troubles 
would  disappear  if  we  had  better  soul- 
sight.  Our  hearts  are  often  in  panic 
because  our  minds  are  in  darkness.  Amid 
dark  shadows,  harmless  and  even  friendly 
things  assume  threatening  and  terrifying 
shapes.  There  is  a  wonderfully  close 
relation  between  blindness  and  broken- 
heartedness. 

The  men  of  Christ's  day  did  not  suspect 
that  they  were  blind.  They  considered 
themselves  open-eyed  and  clear-seeing  men. 
Yet  they  failed  under  each  test  which  He 
submitted.  He  took  the  mirror  of  the  law, 
wiped  off  the  dust  which  commentators  had 
flung  upon  it,  and  held  it  up  all  brightly 
polished,  that  men  might  see  themselves  in 
it.  Yet  there  was  only  here  and  there  a  soul 
that  had  sight  enough  left  to   discover  its 


OF  NAZARETH  91 

own  spots  and  stains.  He  held  before  them 
the  mirror  of  His  own  pure  life,  and  while 
a  few  men  like  Simon  Peter,  and  a  number 
of  women  like  Mary  Magdalene,  caught 
swift,  clear  vision  of  their  inward  pollution, 
the  rest  remained  unconcerned.  When 
He  gave  them  the  parable  of  the  Good 
Samaritan,  it  was  as  though  He  had  put 
a  field-glass  into  their  hands  to  test  their 
power  of  identifying  the  man  who  was 
their  neighbour.  But  they  failed  again. 
And  because  the  eyes  of  man's  understand- 
ing were  thus  weak  and  blurred,  He  re- 
ceived commission  from  the  Father  to 
correct  the  organ  of  vision. 

If  we  inquire  into  the  method  by  which 
Christ  gives  recovery  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
one  fact  stands  out  in  impressive  clear- 
ness, viz.,  that  He  opens  the  eyes  of  the 
understanding  by  winning  the  obedience 
of  the  will.  His  whole  system  of  treat- 
ment is  based  upon  the  principle  "  if  any 
man  willeth  to  do  His  will,  he  shall  know 
of  the  teaching."  The  quickening  of  the 
soul's  optic  nerve  comes  as  a  consequence 
of  the  obedient  action  of  the  heart.  Dis- 
obedience closes  the  darkening  shutters 
upon  the  spiritual  eye  ;  obedience  unfolds 
them  and  lets  in  the  light  of  truth.  Where 
the  will  refuses   to   move   at  the   impulse 


92     CHRIST  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUE 

of  His  command,  the  understanding 
of  spiritual  things  continues  darkened. 
Always  the  question  of  sight  or  blindness 
relates  itself  in  the  last  analysis  to  that  of 
obedience  or  disobedience.  The  objective 
point  upon  which  the  divine  oculist  works 
is  the  sinner's  will.  Coiled  there  lies  the 
spring  that  will  open  or  close  for  him  the 
gates  of  day. 

3. 

Christ  is  Mankind's  Redeemer. 

In  the  Messianic  manifesto  there  is 
reference  to  the  two-fold  nature  of  our 
Lord's  redeeming  work.  He  brings  deliver- 
ance to  the  "  captives "  and  sets  at  liberty 
"  them  that  are  bruised."  The  caj)tives 
are  those  who  have  been  taken  in  war. 
The  bruised  are  those  who  have  been  crushed 
beneath  the  hand  of  the  oppressor.  And 
is  not  the  world  of  to-day  full  of  men  and 
women  who  need  this  two-fold  redemption  ? 
To  the  power  of  sin  they  are  captive  ;  under 
the  weight  of  misfortune  they  are  crushed. 
We  are  not  long  in  this  world,  if  we  are 
living  without  Christ,  before  we  become 
both  bound  and  bruised.  Bad  habit  binds 
us,  and  the  wheel  of  judgment  breaks 
us.     Only   one   hand  can  cut  the  cords  of 


OF  NAZARETH  93 

our  captivity  and  lift  us  from  the  cog- 
wheels that  grind  men  into  dust.  That 
hand  the  Christ  holds  forth.  To  Him  let 
the  prayer  arise,  "Come,  Great  Deliverer, 
come ! " 


CHRIST  CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE 


"  And  the  Passover  of  the  Tews  was  at  hand,  and  Jesug 
went  up  to  Jerusalem.  And  he  found  in  the  temple  those 
that  sold  oxen  and  sheep  and  doves,  and  the  changers  of 
money  sitting  :  and  he  made  a  scourge  of  cords,  and  cast 
all  out  of  the  temple,  both  the  sheep  and  the  oxen ;  and 
he  poured  out  the  changers'  money,  and  overthrew  their 
tables ;  and  to  them  that  sold  doves  he  said,  Take  these 
things  hence ;  make  not  my  Father's  house  a  house  of 
merchandise.  His  disciples  remembered  that  it  was 
written,  The  zeal  of  thine  house  shall  eat  me  up.  The 
Jews  therefore  answered  and  said  unto  him.  What  sign 
shewestthou  unto  us,  seeing  that  thou  doest  these  things  ? 
Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  them,  Destroy  this  temple, 
and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up.  The  Jews  therefore 
said.  Forty  and  six  years  was  this  temple  in  building,  and 
wilt  thou  raise  it  up  in  three  days  ?  But  he  spake  of  the 
temple  of  his  body.  When  therefore  he  was  raised  from 
the  dead,  his  disciples  remembered  that  he  spake  this ; 
and  they  believed  the  scripture,  and  the  word  which  Jesua 
had  said." — John  ii.  13-22. 


CHAPTER  VII 

CHEIST  CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE 

THERE  were  two  things  which  Jesus 
was  always  concerned  to  do  when- 
ever He  visited  Jerusalem.  One  of  these 
was  to  boldly  assert  His  Messianic  claims, 
and  the  other  was  to  advance,  in  memory- 
haunting  phrase,  some  fresh,  high  doctrine 
concerning  God.  We  can  readily  under- 
stand how  it  was  that  Jerusalem,  more 
than  any  other  city,  called  forth  these 
claims  and  doctrines.  Jerusalem  was  the 
heart  of  the  nation,  the  seat  of  ecclesias- 
tical authority,  and  the  centre  of  priestly 
power.  There  the  religious  system  of  the 
nation  culminated.  There  the  great  feasts 
were  celebrated.  There  religious  arrogance 
and  bigotry  and  intolerance  came  to  a 
head  and  showed  their  most  threatening 
front.  Always,  in  Jerusalem,  He  would 
have  before  Him  in  full  view  the  evidence 
of  Israel's  fossilized  faith.     On  every  hand 

8  97 


98  CHRIST  CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE 

it  was  manifest  that  the  law  had  been 
mechanically  interpreted  and  its  spiritual 
quality  obscured.  The  ritual  of  worship, 
intended  to  serve  as  a  window  to  let  in 
the  light  of  truth  upon  the  soul,  had  been 
converted  into  a  shutter  to  keep  it  out. 
Hence  it  was  that  in  Jerusalem  His  Mes- 
sianic consciousness  came  to  its  highest 
sensitiveness,  and  His  holy  indignation 
was  raised  to  its  whitest  heat.  Here  at 
the  centre  of  national  Hfe  and  feeling  He 
felt  the  compulsion  to  utter  Himself  in 
boldest  terms.  Whatever  He  might  do  in 
Capernaum  along  the  lines  of  quiet,  patient, 
teaching  ministries,  in  Jerusalem  He  felt 
compelled  to  so  speak  and  act  as  to 
shake  the  seats  of  the  mighty  and  wake 
the  slumbering  priesthood  from  delusive 
dreams. 

The  cleansing  of  the  Temple  was  an  act 
of  this  sort.  It  was  a  startlingly  bold 
assertion  of  His  Messianic  authority.  To 
interfere  with  any  of  the  established  cus- 
toms of  the  Temple  was  in  itself  a  claim 
to  regal  rights  in  Israel.  It  would  be  a 
conspicuous  supplanting  of  the  authority 
of  the  Sanhedrin  and  the  Temple  officials. 
It  would  mean  that  he  who  dared  to  do 
it  held  himself  superior  to  priestly  autho- 
rity and    unimpeachable    by    ecclesiastical 


CHRIST  CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE  99 

law.      The   act  was   thus  interpreted,  and 
Jesus  intended  it  to  be  so. 

The  circumstances  which  occasioned  the 
act  constituted  a  flagrant  abuse  of  Temple 
privileges,  and  justify  the  extraordinary 
procedure  of  Jesus  to  every  thinking  mind. 
The  abuse  had  grown  up  gradually  and 
stealthily.  Worshippers  coming  from  re- 
mote parts  of  Palestine  and  regions  beyond 
found  it  necessary  to  purchase  in  Jerusalem 
the  materials  required  for  Temple  offerings. 
These  materials  included  bullocks,  goats, 
lambs,  doves,  meal,  oil,  salt,  and  frankin- 
cense. Of  course  the  nearer  to  the  Temple 
these  could  be  procured,  the  more  convenient 
it  would  be  for  the  worshipper.  Dealers  in 
these  commodities,  competing  with  each 
other  for  patronage,  had  crept  nearer  and 
nearer  to  the  sacred  precincts  until  they 
had  actually  established  themselves  in  the 
outer  Temple  court.  There,  too,  were  the 
tables  of  the  money-changers.  "  Every 
Jew  had  to  pay  into  the  Temple  treasury 
an  annual  tax  of  half  a  shekel,  and  this  tax 
could  only  be  paid  in  the  sacred  currency. 
No  foreign  coin,  with  its  emblem  of  sub- 
mission to  an  alien  king,  was  allowed  to 
pollute  the  Temple.  Thus  there  came  to  be 
need  of  money-changers,  not  only  for  the 
Jew  who   came   up  to   the  feast    from  a 


100  CHRIST  CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE 

remote  part  of  the  Empire,  but  even  for 
the  inhabitant  of  Palestine,  as  the  Roman 
coinage  had  displaced  the  shekel  in  ordinary- 
use."  These  money-brokers  had  followed 
the  traders  into  the  Temple  court.  One  can 
imagine  the  pandemonium  which  must 
have  reigned  there  when  a  great  multitude 
came  up  for  a  feast  like  the  Passover. 
The  bleating  of  the  lambs,  the  bellowing 
of  the  bullocks,  the  shouting  and  pushing 
and  wrangling  of  the  greedy  traders  and 
their  touts,  the  shuffling  of  coins  and  the 
haggling  about  discounts  on  the  strange 
money  exchanged,  would  all  combine  to 
make  the  scene  one  of  disgraceful  uproar 
and  a  lamentable  profanation  of  the  sacred 
place. 

Jesus,  entering  the  Temple  area,  finds 
Himself  in  the  midst  of  this  abominable 
desecration.  To  the  depths  of  His  reverent 
soul  He  is  stirred  with  indignation.  Is  this 
the  House  of  God?  Is  this  the  place  of 
prayer  ?  With  flashing  eyes  He  views  the 
crowd  of  hucksters,  whose  unrestrained 
commercial  instincts  have  made  it  "  a  house 
of  merchandise,"  and  whose  insatiate  greed 
has  degraded  it  into  "a  den  of  thieves." 
The  hateful  scene  makes  swift,  strong  chal- 
lenge to  His  Messianic  consciousness.  It 
flings,  as  it  were,  the  glove  into  His  face, 


CHRIST  CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE  101 

as  thovigh  to  defy  His  spiritual  lordship. 
Unhesitatingly,  but  with  full  appreciation 
of  all  that  His  act  involves,  He  accepts  the 
challenge.  The  zeal  for  the  honour  of  His 
Fat]ier's  name,  which  was  ever  glowing  in 
His  soul,  bursts  suddenly  into  consuming 
flame.  Gathering  a  handful  of  discarded 
baggage-cords  lying  loosely  amidst  the 
litter  of  the  place.  He  braids  them  into  a 
whip,  and  then,  with  uplifted  arm  and  com- 
manding look,  clears  the  court  of  traffickers 
and  merchandise. 

The  sternness  of  the  act,  the  indignation 
displayed,  and  the  threat  of  physical  force 
make  this  an  unparalleled  incident  in  our 
Lord's  life.  Some  may  feel  that  it  mars 
the  story  of  His  otherwise  meek  and  patient 
ways.  I  do  not  share  that  feeling  in  the 
slightest  degree.  If  I  believe  that  Jesus 
was  the  Messiah,  the  Lord  of  the  Temple, 
and  the  divine  Son  of  God,  I  must  believe 
Him  to  be  the  head  and  source  of  all  legis- 
lative and  administrative  authority  in  the 
kingdom  of  God.  All  other  authority  is 
delegated  from  Him.  When  His  underlings 
default  in  duty  there  can  be  nothing  un- 
dignified or  incongruous  in  His  direct  and 
personal  dealing  with  the  situation. 

No  doubt  the  deed  was  freely  discussed 
and  savagely  criticised.     It  would  be  a  chief 


102  CHRIST  CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE 

topic  of  conversation  at  every  table  in 
Jerusalem  that  evening.  The  cattle-dealers 
and  the  money-changers  would  be  hot  with 
resentment  over  their  loss  of  business. 
Sanhedrists  and  priests  would  be  aflame 
with  indignation  because  of  the  usurpation 
of  their  functions.  Conservative  gentlemen 
of  the  city  would  deprecate  the  excitement 
aroused.  A  few,  perhaps,  would  hail  it 
as  a  timely  and  necessary  reform.  Many 
would  be  full  of  conjecture  concerning  the 
dignity  of  demeanour  and  the  compelling 
power  of  a  personality  that  was  competent 
to  accomplish  the  deed.  Some  would  be- 
lieve on  Him  as  the  Messiah.  From  every 
view-point  it  was  one  of  the  most  important 
acts  of  the  Messiah's  career.  And  it  was 
never  forgotten  while  He  lived.  At  every 
great  feast  thereafter  priests  and  people 
alike  looked  for  His  face  and  wondered  as 
to  what  He  might  do  next.  From  that  day 
onward  it  was  well  known  to  Jerusalem 
that  a  new  force  had  appeared  in  the 
nation's  life,  and  they  watched  Him. 

The  curiosity  and  confusion  of  opinion 
regarding  one  who  could  do  this  thing 
reflect  themselves  in  the  query  put  to  Him, 
"What  sign  shewest  Thou  unto  us,  seeing 
that  Thou  doest  these  things?"  It  was  a 
foolish  question,  for  the  deed  was  its  own 


CHRIST  CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE   103 

clear  sign.  It  spoke  for  itself.  It  was  its 
own  vindication  and  interpretation.  It  was 
a  token  of  Messiahship.  Therefore,  Jesus 
gave  them  their  answer  in  an  enigma : 
*'  Destroy  this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I 
will  raise  it  up."  They  did  not  understand 
the  saying,  but  they  remembered  it.  It 
stuck  like  a  barbed  arrow  in  the  minds  of 
these  Jerusalem  Jews  and  festered  there. 
When  on  trial  for  His  life,  they  raked  up  a 
garbled  form  of  the  saying  and  put  it  in 
as  evidence  against  Him,  to  prove  that  He 
was  a  mischief-maker,  a  peace-disturber, 
and  a  blasphemer.  But  for  us  the  answer 
of  our  Lord  is  full  of  spiritual  illuminations. 
In  the  light  of  that  reply  the  whole  incident 
glows  with  significance  and  splendour.  If 
we  look  steadily  at  this  word,  with  an  eye 
to  mark  its  suggestions  and  implications, 
we  shall  discover  the  very  heart  of  the 
gospel  in  it. 

1. 

hi  the  first  place,  it  re^ninds  us  that  the 
True  and  Eternal  Shrine,  at  which  Man 
meets  God  and  God  meets  Man,  is  the 
Person  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  word  which  Jesus  used  in  His  reply 
to  the  Jews  is  better  rendered  "Shrine" 
than  "  Temple."    The  Temple  was  the  entire 


104  CHRIST  CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE 

edifice,  and  included  everything  within  the 
sacred  area ;  the  shrine  was  the  sanctuary 
which  only  the  high  priest  might  enter. 
"Break  up  this  shrine,"  He  said,  and  in 
three  days  I  will  rear  it  again.  He  made 
good  His  claim  to  the  possession  of  this 
reconstructive  power  in  the  resurrection. 
By  that  achievement,  He  opened  to 
humanity  a  new  Holy  of  Holies,  filled 
with  the  true  Shekinah  glory.  Into  that 
sacred  shrine  humanity  is  invited  to  enter. 
Through  the  rent  veil  of  Christ's  flesh  the 
access  is  free.  The  shrine  was  for  the 
moment  overthrown  when  Christ  died  on 
the  cross  ;  but  it  was  rebuilded,  never  to 
be  disturbed  again,  when  He  rose  from  the 
dead.  The  true  sanctuary  of  souls  is  there, 
in  the  heart  of  Christ.  It  is  spacious 
enough  to  serve  as  the  gathering-place 
for  all  mankind.  There  God  dwells  in 
glory;   there  He  meets  man  in  grace. 

2. 

This  Word  of  Jesus  also  reminds  us  that 
every  Life  in  touch  tvith  Him  becomes  a 
Lesser  Shrine,  ^^for  the  Habitation  of 
God  through  the  Spirit." 

This  thought  is  worked  out  into  fulness 
by  the  apostle  Paul.     "Know  ye  not  that 


CHKIST  CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE   105 

your  body  is  a  shrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
that  is  in  you  ? "  God  is  not  content  to 
dwell  in  Christ  alone,  else  He  had  not  sent 
Him  into  this  world  to  be  made  flesh  and 
to  tabernacle  with  us.  He  seeks  a  shrine 
in  the  secret  chambers  of  the  human  soul, 
where  He  can  commune  with  man.  Not 
in  Jerusalem,  nor  in  the  mountain  of 
Samaria  is  His  sanctuary  to  be  found,  but 
in  the  humble,  believing,  contrite  heart. 
The  supremest  glory  of  a  human  life  is 
this,  that  it  may  come  to  be  a  shrine  where 
God  appears  and  manifests  His  face. 

3. 

Christ  the  Central  Shrine,  icith  His  Believing 
People  as  Associated  Shrines,  are  to  con- 
stitute the  grand,  completed  Temple 
Eternity. 

This  was  the  golden  dream  of  Christ  and 
His  apostles.  In  their  thought  the  indi- 
vidual lives  of  believers  are  regarded  as  the 
numerous  lesser  shrines,  each  opening  into 
the  great  central  shrine,  and  accessible  from 
it,  and  all  together  builded  into  one  glorious 
temple  of  God.  The  idea  is  exemplified  in 
the  great  cathedrals  of  Christendom.  One 
of  the  chiefest  charms  of  these  imposing 
edifices  is  found  in  the  quiet  chapels,  the 


106  CHRIST  CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE 

sweet  and  simple  prayer-places  to  which  the 
worshipper  may  retire  from  the  distracting 
presence  of  the  multitude  which  throngs 
nave  and  transepts  and  choir.  But  all 
these  lesser  shrines  are  associated  with  the 
grand,  central  shrine.  They  are  all  "builded 
together"  into  one  glorious  house  of  God. 
And  this  is  the  relation  which  we  may  bear 
to  Christ.  Our  lives,  humble  as  they  are, 
may  become  sanctuaries  opening  into  the 
heart  of  Christ,  and  accessible  to  weary  souls 
who  seek  God  at  some  lowly  shrine. 

4. 

God's    Shrines   must  he    kept  fit  for  Holy 

Uses. 

They  must  be  clean.  And  if  they  are  to 
be  clean  they  must  be  cleansed  from  within, 
from  the  central  shrine.  Christ,  who  is  High 
Priest  as  well  as  shrine,  must  purify  us  with 
the  spirit  of  His  own  life.  That  is  what  it 
means  to  have  a  heart  sprinkled  with  the 
blood  of  Jesus.  This  cleansing  work  is  one 
that  needs  repeating,  Jesus  cleansed  the 
Temple  at  Jerusalem  twice ;  once  at  the 
beginning,  again  near  the  end  of  His 
ministry. 

There  must  be  order  and  quietness  at  the 
shrine.     All  the  approaches  must  be  made 


CHEIST  CLEANSING  THE  TEMPLE   107 

attractive  and  harmonious  with  the  purpose 
for  which  the  Temple  is  builded  as  a  meeting- 
place  for  God  and  men.  In  every  Christian 
life,  and  in  every  Christian  church  these 
qualities  should  be  found — a  holy  calm, 
a  brooding  peace,  a  warmth  of  fellow- 
ship, a  glow  of  love,  and  a  glorious  light 
of  truth.  Where  there  are  traffic  and 
barter  and  competition  and  selfish  shoulder- 
ing in  the  courts  of  the  Temple,  the  light  at 
its  centre  will  be  dimmed,  and  its  oracles  be 
dumb.  Where  the  courts  are  clean  and  a 
cloistered  stillness  invites,  men  find  their 
way  through  men  to  God,  and  through  God 
to  other  men. 


CHRIST    AT    JACOB'S    WELL 


"  So  he  Cometh  to  a  city  of  Samaria,  called  Sychar, 
near  to  the  parcel  of  ground  that  Jacob  gave  to  his  son 
Joseph :  and  Jacob's  well  was  there.  Jesus  therefore, 
being  wearied  with  his  journey,  sat  thus  by  the  well.  It 
was  about  the  sixth  hour.  There  cometh  a  woman  of 
Samaria  to  draw  water." — John  iv.  5-7. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CHRIST    AT   JACOB'S    WELL 

THE  success  of  Christ's  brief  mission 
to  the  Samaritan  city  of  Sychar  is 
in  striking  contrast  to  the  results  which 
attended  His  work  in  Jerusalem,  and  those 
which  followed  in  the  Galilean  city  of 
Capernaum.  The  atmosphere  of  Jerusalem 
was  too  political,  while  that  of  Capernaum 
was  too  commercial  to  favour  a  general 
response  to  high  spiritual  appeals.  In 
Samaria,  however,  though  there  was  much 
vice  and  ignorance  and  prejudice,  there  still 
remained  something  of  simplicity,  some- 
thing of  what  we  may  term  spiritual  wist- 
fulness,  that  opened  the  door  for  Him  into 
the  hearts  of  the  people. 

It  was  a  source  of  deep  satisfaction  to  Jesus 
to  win  this  spiritual  triumph  so  early  in  His 
ministry.  He  came  to  Jacob's  well,  on  the 
outskirts   of  the   city,  weary  and   hungry 

and  thirsty,  in  spirit  as  well  as  in  body.     But 
in 


112     CHRIST  AT  JACOB'S  WELL 

whilst  the  disciples  were  gathering  pro- 
visions for  their  bodily  hunger,  He  gathered 
a  royal  feast  for  His  soul.  When  they  re- 
turned to  the  well  they  found  Him  refreshed, 
elated,  triumphant.  And  while  they  were 
wondering  who  had  brought  Him  food,  a 
crowd  of  eager  people  from  the  city  appeared 
in  view.  Jesus,  pointing  joyously  to  the 
on-coming  multitude  of  inquirers,  turned 
to  His  disciples  and  said,  in  effect,  "  I 
have  been  feasting  upon  the  first-fruits 
of  the  harvest  that  is  waving  ripe  for 
your  sickles  in  yonder  approaching  throng. 
Thrust  in  and  reap !  It  is  a  time  of  special 
opportunity.  You  have  not  expected  such 
a  sudden  development,  I  know.  Dis- 
couraged by  the  reception  in  Jerusalem, 
you  have  been  thinking  that  it  must  take 
a  long  time  to  move  any  community  into 
sympathy  with  My  Messianic  mission.  You 
have  been  repeating  the  proverb  of  the 
farmer,  that  long  months  must  always  in- 
tervene between  the  seed -sowing  and  the 
harvest.  But  here  is  a  harvest  ripened  in  a 
day.  I  dropped  a  handful  of  seed  into  the 
soul  of  that  woman  whom  you  saw  here 
a  little  while  ago,  and  whom  you  were 
inclined  to  scowl  upon,  and  lo,  from  that 
sowing,  this  quick  harvest  of  interest  has 
ripened.     This  whole  community  is  prepared 


CHETST  AT  JACOB'S  WELL     113 

to  receive  me  now,  in  My  Messianic  capacity. 
You  have  not  laboured  to  produce  this 
harvest,  but  I  have  laboured,  and  the  woman 
has  laboured,  and  it  is  for  you  to  enter  into 
our  labours." 

Yes,  it  was  a  great  joy  for  Jesus  to  win 
this  early  triumph,  and  that  without  any 
display  of  miracle,  but  only  through  the 
revelation  of  His  mind  and  heart.  He  had 
come  to  that  well  a  wayfarer,  travel- 
stained  and  weary,  and  he  had  won  His 
welcome  solely  by  the  manifestation  of  His 
wisdom,  sympathy,  and  grace.  Nor  was  the 
triumph  short-lived.  Samaria  continued  to 
be  good  ground  for  the  gospel.  In  after 
years  the  disciples  reaped  splendid  harvests 
there.  After  Pentecost,  when  the  storm  of 
persecution  broke  forth  in  Jerusalem,  and 
the  scattered  disciples  went  everywhere 
preaching  the  word,  "  Philip  went  down  to 
the  city  of  Samaria,  and  proclaimed  unto 
them  the  Christ,  and  the  people  gave  heed 
with  one  accord  unto  the  things  that  were 
spoken  by  Philip.  .  .  .  And  there  was  much 
joy  in  that  city." 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  Samaria  was 
opened  to  evangelism  through  the  medium 
of  a  woman  of  low,  social  rank,  and  of  ill- 
repute.  She  was  the  latch  of  the  door  which 
Christ  found  ready  for  His  hand.  It  is  one 
9 


114     CHRIST  AT  JACOB'S  WELL 

of  those  instances  in  which  the  humblest 
of  means  has  been  used  to  achieve  the  most 
far-reaching  results,  and  it  warns  us  against 
despising  the  possibilities  of  service  which 
may  lie  latent  in  the  most  unpromising 
lives. 

The  whole  story  of  our  Lord's  dealing 
with  this  woman  is  full  of  pathetic  interest, 
and  it  makes  one  of  the  brightest  pages 
of  the  gospel.  In  this  incident  we  see  Him 
engaged  in  doing  the  very  sort  of  work  for 
which,  in  His  manifesto  at  Nazareth,  He 
claimed  to  be  appointed  and  anointed. 
Here  was  one  in  whose  life  were  all  the 
sorrowful  conditions  He  had  enumerated 
there.  Here  we  behold  Him  at  the  task  of 
preaching  good  tidings  to  one  who  was 
poor,  healing  one  who  was  broken-hearted, 
proclaiming  release  to  one  who  was  bound, 
recovering  sight  to  one  who  was  blind,  and 
setting  at  liberty  one  who  was  bruised. 
Here  we  see  the  Master-workman  at  His 
chosen  work. 

In  reflecting  upon  the  manifesto  at 
Nazareth,  we  noted  that  the  root  trouble  of 
all  the  sad  list  of  troubles  mentioned  there 
was  that  of  blindness.  Poverty,  captivity, 
broken-heartedness,  and  bruises  are  all  the 
consequences  of  darkness  which  has  drifted 
down  upon  the  soul.     Observe  how  that  fact 


CHRIST  AT  JACOB'S  WELL     115 

is  emphasized  by  the  Master's  treatment  of 
the  woman  at  the  well !  He  traces  all  her 
sins  and  sorrows  back  to  her  lack  of  spiritual 
discernment.  He  finds  the  secret  of  all  her 
evil  and  wretched  life  in  her  ignorance  of 
spiritual  realities.  He  puts  His  finger  upon 
the  occasion  of  all  her  misdeeds  and  mis- 
fortunes when  He  gently  says,  "if  thou 
knewest."  It  was  the  blind  spot  in  her  soul 
which  was  ruining  her  life.  It  was  not  her 
ignorance,  mark  you,  of  the  wrappings  of 
spiritual  things,  which  wrought  the  mischief, 
but  her  blindness  to  the  great  spiritual 
verities  and  realities.  She  was  not  alto- 
gether illiterate.  She  had  a  knowledge  of 
the  Scriptures.  She  was  well  versed  in 
her  Samaritan  creed.  She  understood  the 
points  of  difference  between  that  and  the 
creed  of  the  Jews.  She  was  keen  for  con- 
troversy upon  these  points.  But  she  knew 
not  the  substance  and  soul  of  truth.  She 
knew  not  "  the  gift  of  God."  In  these 
particulars  she  represents  multitudes  of 
men  and  women  in  our  own  time.  There 
are  men  who  write  books — books  which 
manifest  great  mental  breadth  and  acute- 
ness,  books  which  deal  with  biblical  and 
theological  subjects  in  a  scholarly  way,  but 
which  reveal,  all  too  clearly,  a  lack  of  experi- 
mental knowledge  of  divine  things.     This  is 


116     CHRIST  AT  JACOB'S  WELL 

the  frequent  difficulty  which  the  Christian 
worker  meets  :  acquaintance  with  the  husk, 
but  ignorance  of  the  kernel  of  spiritual 
things.  There  is,  for  instance,  no  lack  of 
intelligence  among  the  English  populace 
to-day  regarding  creeds  and  rituals  and 
other  trappings  of  that  sort.  The  average 
British  workman  is  a  rather  clever  contro- 
versialist upon  points  like  these.  He  is 
ready  for  argument.  He  can  pick  holes  in 
speech  or  sermon  with  surprising  facility. 
But  does  he  know  the  power  of  God  in  his 
own  soul?  In  many  instances  he  does,  we 
are  thankful  to  believe.  And  then  he  stands 
out  and  lives  a  radiant  life.  But  it  is  as 
true  of  the  multitude  of  the  common  people, 
as  it  is  of  the  lesser  company  of  the  scribes, 
that  they  are  largely  lacking  in  a  first-hand, 
experimental  knowledge  of  the  things  of 
God.  What  we  need,  above  all  other  things, 
to  know,  are  the  things  of  which  Jesus 
spoke  to  the  woman  at  the  well :  the  Gift 
of  God,  and  the  Bringer  of  the  Gift. 

1. 

Concerning  the  Grift. 

Christ's  teaching  upon  this  matter  is  all 
compacted  into  one  word — "Life."  "The 
gift  of  God  is  eternal  life."     The  figure  of 


CHRIST  AT  JACOB'S  WELL      117 

speech  which  Christ  used  to  set  forth  His 
thought  was  singularly  impressive.  "  Thou 
wouldest  have  asked  of  Him  and  He  would 
have  given  thee  living  water."  Water  is 
essential  to  life.  The  thirst  for  it  is  the 
most  intense  of  all  our  physical  cravings. 
Jesus  would  have  this  Samaritan  woman 
realise  that  what  she  most  needed  was 
something  that  would  do  for  her  soul  what 
the  water  of  Jacob's  well  could  do,  in 
partial  measure,  for  her  body.  Every  day 
this  unfortunate  woman  was  compelled  to 
trudge  out  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  city 
in  all  weathers  to  bring  the  water  from 
the  well.  Her  own  words  show  that  it 
was  an  added  hardship  in  an  otherwise 
hard  life.  There  is  a  plaintive  note  in  her 
phrase,  "  all  the  way  hither  to  draw."  And 
yet  she  had  trudged  a  long  and  weary 
way  during  the  journey  of  her  life  and  had 
sunk  her  pitcher  into  many  a  well  without 
getting  so  much  as  one  life-giving  draught 
for  her  immortal  soul.  They  were  all  poor 
wells  and  badly  polluted.  At  this  period 
of  her  life  she  was  living  in  adultery. 
Every  day  the  poison  of  that  sinful  alliance 
was  doing  its  deadly  work  in  her  soul. 
Jesus  would  teach  her  that  the  blessing 
which  God  held  in  His  gift  was  one  that 
would  issue  in  an  artesian  well  within  her 


118     CHRIST  AT  JACOB'S  WELL 

soul.  The  contents  of  that  well,  replenished 
continually  from  the  fountain-head  of  life, 
would  be  satisfying,  curative,  and  unfailing. 
She  would  no  longer  need  to  go  hither  and 
thither  to  draw,  but  would  have  the  springs 
of  life  within.  And  this  was  the  gift  that 
Jesus  was  constantly  holding  forth  to  men 
— life  for  the  soul,  life  in  the  soul. 


But  she  needed  to  know  also  concerning  the 
Bringer  of  the  Gift. 

Where  was  He  to  be  found?  She  did 
not  suspect  that  this  wayworn  traveller 
could  bestow  the  gift.  It  was  not  for  such 
as  He  to  pour  this  blessing  into  her  soul. 
When  He  asserted  His  power  to  confer  the 
boon  she  met  His  claim  with  contemptuous 
scepticism.  "Sir,  Thou  hast  nothing  to 
draw  with  and  the  well  is  deep.  From 
whence,  then,  hast  Thou  that  living  water  ?  " 
She  had  yet  to  learn  that  Jesus  was  Him- 
self both  well  and  drawer  of  the  living 
water.  The  well  was  His  own  deep,  divine 
life ;  the  apparatus  for  drawing  was  His 
own  spirit  of  willing  helpfulness.  Truly 
the  well  was  deep — deep  as  the  nature  of 
God,  deep  as  the  depths  of  human  need. 
But  He  had  something  to  draw  with.     He 


CHRIST  AT  JACOB'S  WELL     119 

had  sympathy  and  understanding.  Under- 
standing was  the  line  and  sympathy  the 
bucket  which  would  bring  up  the  crystal, 
vitalising  waters  from  the  nether  springs 
of  that  deep  well.  He  could  lift  the  bless- 
ing for  her  in  a  moment  and  pour  it  fresh 
and  cool  into  her  parched  and  barren  soul. 

3. 

Mark  the  Method  which  Christ  employed  to 
open  her  Soul  for  the  Reception  of  the 
Gift! 

First  of  all,  He  appealed  to  her  Sympathies. 
His  request,  "Give  Me  to  drink,"  touched 
her  womanly  instinct  of  mercy.  There  is 
in  every  woman  a  potential  angel  of 
ministration.  It  may  be  a  sleeping  angel ; 
its  wings  may  be  folded  or  even  broken. 
But  the  angel  may  be  waked  and  its 
broken  wings  be  mended  if  touched  by  a 
skilful  hand.  It  is  the  prerogative  of 
womanhood  to  relieve  the  distress  and 
refresh  the  weariness  of  mankind.  The 
appeal  to  woman's  sympathy  is  one  that 
seldom  fails.  And  sympathy  is  a  faeulty 
of  spiritual  knowledge.  It  is  an  organ  of 
vision.  Get  the  sympathies  aroused  and 
you  have  prepared  the  way  for  a  revelation. 
It  was  not  a  gracious  response  which  the 


120     CHRIST  AT  JACOB'S  WELL 

woman  first  made  to  Christ's  request,  but 
the  request  had  touched  her  and  set  the 
chords  of  her  better  nature  in  vibration. 

Then  He  proceeded  to  aioake  her  Wonder. 
Capacity  to  wonder  is  not  a  distinctively 
feminine  characteristic,  but  it  is  stronger 
in  women  than  in  men.  They  have  more 
imagination  than  men,  and  imagination 
impels  to  wonder.  When,  therefore,  the 
Master  said,  "If  thou  knewest,"  He  awoke 
within  her  a  thirst  to  have  the  mystery 
of  His  words  explained.  She  will  not  rest 
now  until  she  gets  the  clue  to  this  riddle. 
So  she  plunges  into  the  matter  with  ques- 
tion and  challenge  concerning  Himself. 
"Art  Thou  greater  than  our  father  Jacob, 
which  gave  us  the  well,  and  drank  thereof 
himself,  and  his  sons,  and  his  cattle?" 
This  is  progress  towards  the  end  He  has 
in  view.  Presently  she  is  saying,  "  Sir,  give 
me  this  water  that  I  thirst  not,  neither 
come  all  the  way  hither  to  draw."  This  is 
further  progress.  He  begins  by  making 
request  of  her ;  she  is  now  making  request 
of  Him.     He  is  getting  on  with  His  work. 

Next  He  stirs  her  Conscience.  "Go  call 
thy  husband."  And  now  the  tell-tale  flush 
mantles  her  cheek  and  her  head  is  drooping 
with  shame  as  she  replies,  "I  have  no 
husband."     It  was   true,   but  it  was   only 


CHRIST   AT  JACOB'S  WELL      121 

part  of  the  truth,  and  not  the  worst  part. 
She  would  fain  leave  the  rest  of  it  untold. 
She  would  huddle  it  up  and  hide  it  from 
this  pure  gaze.  But  that  would  be  fatal  to 
any  cleansing  or  healing  work.  It  would 
prevent  the  water  of  life  from  welling  up 
into  her  soul.  That  hidden  sin  must  be 
bored  through  and  the  love  of  it  broken 
in  her  heart.  It  is  only  through  a  spirit 
opened  up  to  God  in  repentance  and  con- 
fession that  the  water  of  life  can  rise.  So 
the  Master  drives  the  steel  drill  of  accusa- 
tion clean  down  through  her  soul,  unspar- 
ingly pressing  upon  her  the  facts  of  her 
shameful  life.  That  is  the  only  way  to 
bring  a  sinner  to  the  experimental  know- 
ledge of  the  gift  of  God.  It  is  the  only 
way  to  get  the  water  of  life  into  the  soul. 
If  you  seek  to  hide  your  sin  under  some 
dishonest  half-truth,  or  to  dismiss  it  with 
some  easy  phrase,  you  will  dam  back  the 
water  of  life.  You  must  make  a  clean 
breast  of  it.  You  must  let  Christ  bore 
down  through  all  the  rock  formation  of 
your  heart.  He  must  drive  the  shaft  of 
His  truth  clear  through  your  inmost,  secret 
soul.  Where  that  shaft  goes  through  the 
water  of  life  will  presently  come  streaming 
in. 

Now  He  inspires  her  Hope.     Already  she 


122      CHRIST  AT  JACOB'S  WELL 

perceives  that  He  is  a  prophet.  The  lofty 
doctrine  which  He  next  communicates 
concerning  God  and  the  convincing  word 
He  speaks  concerning  worship  set  her 
whole  being  quivering  with  the  hope  that 
this  may  prove  to  be  the  promised  One. 
Will  the  Messiah  when  He  comes  have 
sweeter  or  more  vital  truth  to  give  ?  The 
half-formed  hope  trembles  into  timid  ex- 
pression :  "  I  know  that  Messiah  cometh, 
which  is  called  Christ;  when  He  is  come 
He  will  declare  unto  us  all  things."  It 
was  in  reality  a  wistful  question.  "May 
I  dare  to  hope  that  Thou  art  He?"  All 
the  passionate  earnestness  of  her  being 
goes  into  the  words  and  she  is  looking 
steadfastly  into  His  face.  She  stands  upon 
the  very  verge  of  a  new  life. 

ChiHst's  concluding  word  wins  her  Faith. 
"I  that  speak  unto  thee  am  He."  It  was 
enough.  Her  whole  being  responded  to 
the  announcement  which  to  her  quickened 
spirit  was  a  glorious  revelation.  In  an 
instant  she  felt  within  her  soul  the  up- 
springing  waters  of  everlasting  life.  Where 
the  shaft  of  conviction  had  been  driven 
through  the  stream  of  grace  came  pouring 
in.  In  that  moment  she  knew  the  gift  of 
God  and  the  bringer  of  the  gift. 


CHRIST    ON    THE    MOUNT    OF 
BEATITUDES 


"Every  one  therefore  which  heareth  these  words  of 
mine,  and  doeth  them,  shall  be  likened  unto  a  wise  man 
which  built  his  house  upon  the  rock :  and  the  rain 
descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and 
beat  upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell  not :  for  it  was  founded 
upon  the  rock.  And  every  one  that  heareth  these 
words  of  mine  and  doeth  them  not,  shall  be  likened 
unto  a  foolish  man  which  built  his  house  upon  the  sand : 
and  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the 
winds  blew,  and  smote  upon  that  house ;  and  it  fell :  and 
great  was  the  fall  thereof." — Matthew  vii.  24-27. 


CHAPTER    IX 

CHRIST    ON    THE    MOUNT    OF   BEATITUDES 

THESE  words,  forming  the  practical 
conclusion  to  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  indicate  the  supreme  place  which 
Jesus  gave  in  His  teaching  to  the  import- 
ance of  character-building.  Following  out 
the  metaphor  which  the  Master  used,  we 
come  upon  three  momentous  facts. 

1. 

Characters,  like  Buildings,  have  a  certain 
Unity  about  Them. 

In  the  construction  of  a  building  a 
variety  of  materials  may  be  used — stone, 
brick,  iron,  wood,  glass,  mortar,  putty. 
But  these  materials  are  all,  by  the  builder's 
work,  incorporated  into  a  structural  unity. 
As  component  parts  of  the  one  building  no 
bit  of  stuff  can  disown  its  relations  to  any 
other  bit   of  stuff.     They   belong   to  each 

133 


126  CHRIST  ON  THE 

other.  Through  the  instrumentality  of 
trowel,  chisel,  and  hammer,  they  have  been 
joined  together  and  made  members  one 
of  another.  Diverse  and  unrelated  as  they 
were  when  first  assembled  on  the  site, 
these  materials  are  now  welded  together 
in  one  consolidated  mass. 

A  building  may  also  include  a  multitude 
and  variety  of  compartments.  If  you  visit 
the  town  hall  of  Leicester,  for  instance, 
you  will  find  a  building  of  this  sort.  The 
room  in  which  the  Mayor  and  Councillors 
meet  to  deliberate  upon  civic  affairs,  is, 
as  it  should  be,  a  well-appointed  room, 
delightfully  upholstered  and  beautifully 
decorated.  Fine  paintings  hang  on  the 
walls.  Light,  mellowed  by  its  passage 
through  stained-glass  windows  streams 
in  abundantly.  It  is  an  inviting  place. 
But  all  the  rooms  in  the  building  are  not 
like  that  one.  If  you  descend  to  the  base- 
ment you  will  find  quite  another  sort. 
Here  the  rooms  are  narrow  and  cheerless, 
with  bare  walls,  cold  stone  floors,  plain 
benches,  and  iron  doors  with  padlocks  on 
them.  These  rooms  serve  a  different 
purpose  from  the  one  above.  They  are 
occupied  by  a  less  orderly  set  of  people. 
Men  and  women  are  seen  here  in  sorry 
plight.     But  all  these  rooms  belong  to  the 


MOUNT  OF  BEATITUDES        127 

one  building.  They  are  all  parts  of  one 
inclusive  scheme.  The  council-chamber 
cannot  disown  the  prisoner's  cell.  Diverse 
as  they  are  in  the  accommodation  which 
they  afford  and  the  standing  which  they 
give  their  occupants  before  the  community, 
they  belong  to  each  other  in  the  unity  of 
one  scheme  of  civic  administration. 

The  same  principle  holds  true  of  your 
life.  That,  too,  is  a  unity.  All  the 
materials  which  go  into  your  life,  all 
thoughts,  emotions,  purposes,  deeds,  are 
unified  in  character.  You  are,  at  this 
moment,  the  sum  total  of  all  that  you  have 
been.  All  the  good  in  you  is  joined  to  all 
the  bad  in  you.  The  best  that  is  in  you 
cannot  disown  the  worst  that  is  in  you. 
All  your  personal  characteristics  are  builded 
together  in  you,  each  to  each.  You  cannot 
dissever  them.  You  cannot  dismember 
your  soul.  You  are  not  a  lumber-yard 
where  materials  displace  each  other  as 
they  are  carted  in  and  out;  you  are  a 
structure.  From  the  stuff  at  hand  you 
select  and  build.  No  bit  of  mental  or  moral 
stuff  in  you  can  disclaim  its  relations  to 
any  other  bit. 

There  are  different  compartments  to 
your  being.  You  have  your  council- 
chamber    of    the   soul,   where   reason   and 


128  CHRIST  ON  THE 

conscience  deliberate  and  legislate  for  the 
general  welfare  of  your  life.  But  you  have 
also  the  dark  cells  where  unholy  desires 
lurk  and  lawless  passions  rage.  You  may 
not  conduct  visitors  to  these  cells.  You 
may  try  to  hide  them.  You  may  even 
deny  their  existence.  But  they  are  there 
and  you  know  it.  And  they  are  part  of 
you.  They  are  all  incorporated  into  the 
unity  of  your  personality.  Quality  to 
quality,  strength  to  weakness,  good  to 
evil,  glory  to  shame,  thus  your  life  is  inter- 
linked and  builded.  Thought  joins  itself 
to  thought,  deed  to  deed,  day  to  day,  youth 
to  manhood,  manhood  to  age  in  the  con- 
solidated oneness  of  character.  As  De 
Quincey  wrote,  "Man  is  doubtless  one  by 
some  subtle  nexus  extending  from  the 
new-born  infant  to  the  superannuated 
dotard." 

Now  this  is  a  serious  fact  and  one  which 
makes  the  problem  of  living  critical  at 
every  point.  Especially  does  it  emphasise 
the  necessity  of  carefully  selecting  the  stuff 
which  is  to  be  builded  into  character. 
Cheap  and  poor  materials  will  make  your 
life  unsightly  and  unstable.  Your  moral 
intelligence  must  act  as  the  watchful  in- 
spector to  condemn  and  reject  whatever 
falls    below  a    high  standard    of    quality. 


MOUNT  OF  BEATITUDES        129 

Half-truths,  however  brilliant  they  may 
be ;  vulgar  or  selfish  maxims,  however 
clever  they  may  seem;  compromises  with 
righteousness,  however  convenient  they 
may  appear;  none  of  these  are  good 
enough  to  be  builded  into  character.  If 
you  are  too  trivial  or  too  lazy  to  take 
pains  in  this  matter  you  will  presently 
find  yourself  with  a  rookery  instead  of 
a  substantial  building  on  your  hands. 

The  only  perfect  material  for  character- 
building  is  that  supplied  by  the  Divine 
architect  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
Here  in  the  Beatitudes  you  will  find  a 
pile  of  shining  marble  blocks,  fresh-quarried 
from  the  mine  of  infinite  wisdom.  In  the 
precepts  of  the  sermon  regarding  your 
relations  to  God,  to  your  fellow-men,  to 
the  moral  law  and  to  the  events  of  Provi- 
dence, you  may  find  the  plans  and  specifi- 
cations for  building  these  together  into 
symmetry.  If  you  really  want  the  best 
of  building  stuff  you  must  get  it  here. 

You  are  to  remember  also  tTiat  bad 
workmanship  even  upon  good  material  will 
mar  your  structure.  Carrara  marble  calls 
for  careful  treatment  no  less  than  sun- 
baked bricks.  The  Benedictine  monks  who 
built  the  Peterborough  Cathedral  used  good 
stone  but  poor  mortar.  They  seemed  to 
10 


130  CHRIST  ON  THE 

think  that  anything  was  good  enough  to 
shovel  in  between  the  courses.  It  was 
an  expensive  mistake.  Many  thousands  of 
pounds  have  been  required  of  late  years 
to  restore  the  fabric  of  that  structure.  If 
on  any  side  of  your  life  you  build  badly, 
whether  it  be  on  the  side  of  your  private 
life  or  your  public  life,  your  business  life 
or  your  social  life,  to  that  extent  your 
character  is  disfigured.  On  whatever  storey 
you  are  at  work,  whether  you  are  forming 
physical  habits  or  mental  habits  or  moral 
habits,  you  imperil  the  symmetry  and 
strength  of  your  life  if  you  treat  the 
materials  in  slip-shod  fashion.  We  try  to 
excuse  ourselves  for  the  cracks  which 
appear  in  our  characters,  but  the  matter  is 
too  serious  to  be  lightly  dismissed.  Weak- 
ness in  one  section  may  compromise  the 
solidity  of  the  whole.  Ugliness  from  one 
point  of  view  mars  the  entire  artistic  effect. 
Unwholesomeness  in  one  part  may  speedily 
be  communicated  to  every  other  part.  If 
the  tower  is  to  stand  straight  there  must 
be  no  sagging  of  the  walls.  If  the  council- 
chamber  is  to  be  protected  from  contagion 
the  cells  must  be  daily  disinfected. 

Of  course,  some  parts  of  the  building  you 
are  erecting  are  of  more  importance  than 
some  other  parts.    It  is  more  necessary  that 


MOUNT  OF  BEATITUDES        131 

you  have  good  morals  than  good  manners. 
But  good  manners  are  by  no  means  to  be 
despised.  To  a  certain  extent,  manners  are 
the  expression  of  morals.  And  your  wife 
must  marry  both  your  manners  and  your 
morals.  She  will  have  to  live  with  them 
both.  If  you  are  honest  but  ill-tempered 
and  boorish  she  will  grow  old  before  her 
time.  If  you  are  corrupt  in  morals  it  will 
be  poor  satisfaction  to  her  that  you  have 
a  sunny  temper  and  a  taking  way.  It  is 
the  man  well-builded  in  every  department 
of  his  being  who  makes  the  sort  of  husband 
that  a  good  woman  desires  and  the  sort  of 
father  that  the  children  need.  That  is  the 
sort  of  man  the  world  needs  everywhere. 
It  is  the  sort  of  man  Christ  came  to  make. 

2. 

Characters,  like  Buildings,  are  Designed  to 
serve  Definite  Uses. 

The  use  to  which  the  building  is  to  be 
devoted  will  largely  determine  the  plan  of 
the  architect.  If  it  is  a  barn  or  a  shop  or 
a  warehouse  that  one  has  in  mind,  he  will 
adapt  his  architecture  to  the  end  in  view. 
Men  do  not  build  spires  on  cattle-sheds  or 
put  rose-windows  in  bake-shops.  And  so 
it  is  in  building  character.     The  end  to  be 


132  CHRIST  ON  THE 

served  will  determine  the  style  of  construc- 
tion. If  your  chief  aim  is  to  gather  wealth 
you  will  govern  yourself  accordingly.  Cha- 
racter enough  to  do  business  with  will  be  all 
that  you  require.  Accepting  the  doctrine 
that  a  man's  life  consists  in  the  abundance 
of  the  things  which  he  possesses,  you  will 
build  your  life  after  the  style  of  a  ware- 
house or  a  cold  storage  plant.  You  will 
consider  it  a  waste  of  time  to  cultivate 
other  than  the  commercial  side  of  your 
life.  You  will  pay  little  heed  to  general 
culture  or  to  the  claims  of  philanthropy 
and  religion. 

If  the  chief  end  of  your  life  is  pleasure, 
you  will  construct  your  character  after  the 
fashion  of  a  playhouse.  You  will  want 
plenty  of  colour  and  tinsel  in  it.  You  will 
aim  to  follow  all  the  latest  fashions,  indulge 
in  all  the  sports,  participate  in  all  amuse- 
ments, and  get  in  with  the  liveliest  sets  of 
people.  But  you  will  not  think  it  worth 
while  to  work  hard,  or  to  interest  yourself 
in  public  affairs.  You  will  not  care  about 
meeting  poor  and  unfortunate  people.  Per- 
haps you  will  not  care  to  marry.  Wife  and 
children  might  stand  in  the  way  of  your 
pleasures.  You  will  not  burden  yourself 
with  the  support  of  aged  parents. 

If  j^our  chief  aim  in   life   is   to  acquire 


MOUNT   OF  BEATITUDES        133 

knowledge,  you  will  build  after  the  library- 
plan.  All  you  will  need  is  book-space  in 
your  brain.  Nothing  more  effectually  iso- 
lates a  man,  setting  him  apart  in  cob- 
webbed  uselessness,  than  the  selfish  pursuit 
of  knowledge.  He  gathers  information, 
stores  it  in  the  garret  of  his  brain,  and 
the  rats  eat  it. 

If,  again,  your  chief  aim  is  the  winning 
of  high  place  and  fame,  you  will  build 
after  the  pattern  of  an  Eiffel  Tower. 
Steps  to  climb  by  will  be  all  you  need. 
Nor  will  you  be  over-careful  concerning 
the  stuff  for  step-building  which  you  use. 
If  you  can  make  a  step  of  your  neighbour 
and  climb  up  over  him,  you  will  probably 
be  quite  willing  to  utilise  him  in  that 
capacity. 

But  suppose,  now,  you  make  it  your  chief 
care  to  do  good  in  the  world  and  help  your 
fellow-creatures.  You  will  need,  now,  to 
build  your  life  after  a  far  nobler  plan  than 
any  which  I  have  named.  You  will  need 
to  plan  for  a  type  of  character  that  will 
possess  the  essential  features  of  a  home. 
If  you  are  to  help  people  in  the 
largest  way,  they  must  be  able  to  live 
in  you.  Little  children  must  live  in 
your  cheerful  kindness  ;  your  family  must 
live  in  your  love;  the  poor,  the  ignorant, 


134  CHRIST  ON  THE 

the  unfortunate,  the  discouraged,  must 
live  in  your  sympathy ;  friends  must  live  in 
your  appreciation  and  loyalty.  Room  must 
be  made  for  all  of  these.  You  should  not 
expect  to  be  a  great  helper  of  humanity  if 
you  build  your  life  on  a  low  and  narrow 
plan.  There  imust  be  spaciousness  about 
it  to  afford  the  required  accommodation. 
There  must  be  a  reception-room  in  your 
sympathy,  a  banqueting-room  in  your 
affection,  a  consulting-room  in  your  under- 
standing, a  bathroom  in  your  assoiling 
moral  earnestness.  There  must  be  rest- 
rooms  in  you  too,  quiet  chambers  where 
peace  reigns  and  where  the  atmosphere  is 
fresh  and  sweet.  You  must  be  a  man  built 
on  a  broad  and  high  plan  if  others  are  to 
find  a  home  in  you.  You  must  be  a  man  of 
insight,  of  imagination,  of  generosity ;  you 
must  be  a  man  of  tranquillity  and  heart- 
purity.  Possessing  these  qualities  your  life 
will  be  for  other  lives  an  attractive,  shelter- 
ing, sustaining  home. 

But  now  suppose  you  have  accepted  the 
highest  of  all  ends  as  your  aim  in  life, 
namely,  to  do  the  will  of  God.  This  end 
will  include  all  other  worthy  ends.  It  will 
not  alienate  you  from  the  service  of  man, 
but  will  complete  and  crown  that  service. 
You  must  remember,  however,  that  to  reach 


MOUNT  OF  BEATITUDES        135 

this  end  demands  a  still  loftier  plan  of 
building.  You  must  build  now  after  the 
plan  of  a  temple.  You  must  make  room  for 
God.  You  must  have  a  sanctuary  in  you* 
There  must  be  a  shrine  in  your  heart.  In 
the  deepest  centre  of  your  life  you  must 
build  an  oratory.  And  it  must  be  kept 
inviolate.  To  reach  this  end  you  must  be 
a  religious  man.  You  must  be  a  Christian. 
You  must  take  your  plan  from  Jesus 
Christ,  the  architect  and  exemplar  of  the 
perfect  life. 

Do  not  forget  that  you  are  to  live  in  the 
spiritual  structure  you  build,  and  continue 
to  live  in  it  while  immortality  endures. 
See  that  it  is  fit  to  be  the  enduring  habi- 
tation of  your  conscience ! 

3. 

Characters,  like  Buildings,  are  Subjected  to 
many  and  severe  Testings. 

Each  day  is  a  test-day  for  all  the  build- 
ings of  the  town.  The  weather  tests  them, 
the  sunshine  and  the  frost  and  the  rain. 
Use  tests  them.  Strain  and  weight  of 
contents  test  them.  The  shock  of  traffic 
tests  them.  Sometimes  fire  and  flood  test 
them.  The  same  is  true  of  character.  For 
it  every  day  is  a  judgment  day.     Joy  tests 


136  CHRIST  ON  THE 

it,  and  sorrow  tests  it.  Some  characters 
crumble  beneath  the  one,  some  beneath 
the  other.  Work  tests  and  leisure  tests. 
The  joys  and  sorrows  of  others,  their 
successes  and  failures — these  test  it  too. 
The  fire  of  temptation  and  the  flood  of 
tribulation  are  the  severer  methods  of 
testing  to  which  it  is  subjected  in  the 
great  crises  of  experience. 

And  because  character  is  to  be  so  severely 
tested,  it  becomes  a  matter  of  supreme  con- 
cern that  it  be  built  upon  the  true  founda- 
tion. In  setting  forth  this  great  necessity, 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  comes  to  its  climax  of  warning 
and  of  self-assertion.  Character  built  on  a 
sandy  foundation  will  ultimately  collapse 
into  hideous  ruin.  And  all  character  not 
foundationed  upon  Jesus  Christ  is  built 
upon  the  sand.  Such  is  the  plain  teach- 
ing of  the  Christ.  And  what  a  tremendous 
assertion  it  is !  Think  of  one  individual 
claiming  to  be  the  upholder  of  all  human 
security  and  the  sustaining  base  of  all 
human  well-being  I  Men  in  Christian  pul- 
pits are  declaring  to-day  that  Jesus  never 
claimed  deity  for  Himself  in  any  other  sense 
than  that  in  which  you  and  I  may  claim 
it.  If  that  were  so,  if  Jesus  did  not  regard 
Himself  as  being  divine  in   a  sense  abso- 


MOUNT  OF  BEATITUDES        137 

lutely  unique  and  unattainable  by  any 
other  human  being,  then  in  making  such 
a  claim  as  this  His  arrogance  was 
outrageous.  For,  you  will  notice.  He 
pre-empts  to  Himself  the  whole  founda- 
tion area.  He  leaves  no  room  for  any 
other  teacher  to  share  that  office  with 
Him.  Whatever  men  may  say  regarding 
Him  to-day,  it  is  clear  that  He  believed 
Himself  to  be  infinitely  superior  to  any  man 
who  had  ever  lived  or  ever  should  live» 
in  spiritual  power  and  authority.  The 
distinction  which  He  here  draws  between 
Himself  and  all  other  men  is  wide  enough 
to  stand  for  the  distinction  between  man 
and  God. 

The  experience  of  the  ages  justifies 
Christ's  claim.  A  great  host  of  people 
who  have  tried  many  another  foundation 
are  singing  to-day  : — 

"On  Christ,  the  solid  Rock,  I  stand, 
All  other  ground  ia  sinking  sand." 

Yes,  the  one  solid  foundation  for  human 
character  has  been  abundantly  proven  to 
be  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  His  P'^rson,  His 
Word,  His  Work,  His  Grace. 

They  are  anxious  now  about  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral.     Parts  of  the  foundation  have 


138        CHRIST  ON  THE  MOUNT 

shown  signs  of  weakness,  and  grave  con- 
cern is  felt  for  the  safety  of  the  structure. 
It  would  be  a  national  calamity  if  serious 
harm  should  come  to  that  noble  pile  which 
lifts  above  the  smoke  of  London  "  the  finest 
dome  in  Christendom."  But  it  is  an  infi- 
nitely greater  calamity  when  a  man  created 
in  the  image  of  God  and  redeemed  by  the 
blood  of  Christ  crumbles  into  everlasting 
ruin.  "Take  heed,  therefore,  how  ye 
build." 


CHRIST   BY  THE  SEA   OF  GALILEE 


"  On  that  day  went  Jesus  out  of  the  house,  and  sat  by 
the  seaside.  And  there  were  gathered  unto  Him  great 
multitudes,  so  that  he  entered  into  a  boat  and  sat ;  and 
all  the  multitude  stood  on  the  beach.  And  he  spake  to 
them  many  things  in  parables,  saying,  Behold  the  sower 
went  forth  to  sow." — Matthew  xiii.  1-3. 


CHAPTER  X 

CHRIST  BY  THE  SEA  OF  GALILEE 
THE  PARABLE   OF  THE  SOWER 

WE  shall  best  think  of  the  sower  in 
this  parable  as  being  Christ  Him- 
self. From  this  viewpoint  the  parable  is 
a  revelation  of  the  spirit  and  method  of 
Christ's  work  for  men. 

1. 

In  the  Sowers  handling  of  the  Seed  toe  have 
a  Picture  of  Christ's  Cheerful  Expendi- 
ture of  Efforts  for  the  Enrichment  of 
the  World. 

The  sower  goes  about  his  work  in  a 
large  and  open-handed  way.  He  deals 
generously  by  the  soil.  He  is  not  miserly 
with  his  seed.  He  scatters  it  with  a  free 
hand.  He  knows  that  to  sow  sparingly  is 
to  reap  slenderly.     If  he  stints  the  soil  of 


142  CHRIST  BY  THE 

seed  he  will  cheat  himself  out  of  a  harvest. 
He  is  moved  to  liberality  by  an  optimistic 
faith.  Slinging  the  seed-bag  over  his 
shoulder  he  strides  across  the  fields  and 
empties  it  with  a  cheerful  prodigality. 
Foolish  people,  ignorant  of  the  miracle 
of  harvest,  might  accuse  him  of  waste- 
fulness. Greedy  and  impatient  men  might 
think  that  the  seed  had  better  be  eaten 
at  once  and  not  flung  upon  the  land  like 
this.  But  the  sower  understands  his  busi- 
ness. He  knows  full  well  that  some  of 
his  seeds  will  be  wasted.  They  will  fall 
upon  the  roadway  at  the  edge  of  the 
field  and  the  birds  will  pick  them  up. 
But  he  deems  it  better  that  a  bit  of 
beaten  path  be  sown  than  that  a  margin 
of  ploughed  soil  be  left  unseeded.  He 
would  rather  overdo  his  sowing  than 
underdo  it.  That  is  why  he  flings  some 
seeds  into  the  thorn-bushes.  The  edge  of 
the  good  soil  runs  right  up  to  the  thorn- 
tangle,  and  in  his  eagerness  to  get  the 
last  inch  of  productive  land  under  crop 
he  is  willing  that  a  few  seeds  should 
overshoot  the  mark.  So  he  gives  a  wide, 
strong  swing  to  his  arm,  and  grudges 
not  the  drain  upon  his  bag  of  seed.  He 
believes  that  the  harvest  will  justify  the 
outlay. 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  143 

And  thus  it  was  with  our  Lord.  He 
took  His  way  through  life  scattering 
energies,  distributing  efforts,  and  broad- 
casting truths  with  a  generous  hand. 
Broadly,  even  lavishly,  He  sowed  the 
precious  seeds  of  wisdom  and  of  love. 
One  day  He  noticed  that  a  large  propor- 
tion of  what  He  had  done  seemed  to  have 
come  to  nothing.  It  looked  as  though 
His  energies  had  been  wasted  and  His 
efforts  thrown  away.  The  field  which  He 
had  sown  so  thickly  still  wore  a  bare  and 
unpromising  look.  Only  one  corner  of 
the  field  gave  hope  of  harvest.  But  that 
corner  looked  exceedingly  well.  It  gave 
promise  of  yielding  an  hundred-fold.  And 
it  fulfilled  the  promise.  That  little  com- 
pany of  disciples  who  remained  with  Him 
when  the  multitude  went  away  brought 
in  returns  that  filled  the  Sower's  heart 
with  joy.  Through  them  came  seed  for 
other  sowings  and  other  harvests.  This 
is  always  the  spirit  in  which  Christ  does 
His  work — the  spirit  of  a  boundless  gene- 
rosity, the  spirit  of  a  radiant  optimism. 
And  this  is  the  only  spirit  which  becomes 
His  followers.  We  must  believe  in  the 
vitality  and  potency  of  goodness  and  the 
certainty  of  the  harvest  from  its  sowing 
in  the  lives    of    men.      If    we    are    more 


144  CHRIST  BY  THE 

concerned  to  keep  a  full  seed-bin  than  to 
have  growing  crops  we  are  not  of  His 
spirit.  It  is  for  us  to  do  the  scattering 
of  the  seed,  trusting  Him  to  give  the  in- 
crease. Nothing  is  more  absurd  than  a 
grudging  spirit  in  the  sower  of  good  seed. 
AJl  the  harvests  of  reform  which  the  world 
has  witnessed  have  been  due  to  the  cheer- 
ful prodigality  of  hopeful  sowers.  They 
could  never  have  been  produced  by  men 
who  stingily  counted  the  seeds  in  their 
hands.  When  Wendall  Phillips  was  asked 
what  could  arouse  the  country  to  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves  he  answered, 
"  Sow  the  country  knee-deep  with  abolition 
literature  I "  The  men  of  this  world  are 
wise  enough  in  their  own  generation  to 
know  the  relation  between  seed-sowing 
and  harvest.  Every  election-time  the  land 
is  sown  thick  with  campaign  literature. 
The  Suffragets  of  England  are  fairly  bom- 
barding the  country  with  their  publica- 
tions to-day.  The  Socialists  are  at  it  too, 
and  the  Prohibitionists.  It  is  the  policy 
of  wisdom.  No  man  is  true  to  his  con- 
viction, whatever  it  may  be,  who  is  not 
willing  to  spend  a  good  deal  for  seed 
to  make  it  grow  in  other  lives. 


, ,  \jt 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  145 


The  Sowers  icaiting  for  the  Harvest  pictures 
the  Masters  Patience  in  dealing  with 
Men. 

No  sower  treading  the  furrows  with  his 
seed-bag  in  the  morning  expects  to  be 
binding  sheaves  before  the  sun  goes  down. 
The  time  element  must  come  in.  The  days 
must  bring  their  quivering  heat  and  the 
nights  their  cooling  dews.  God  works 
along  the  lines  of  an  ordered  progressive- 
ness  in  gardens  and  in  men.  "As  the 
earth  bringeth  forth  her  bud,  and  as  the 
garden  causeth  the  things  that  are  sown 
in  it  to  spring  forth ;  so  the  Lord  God  will 
cause  righteousness  and  praise  to  spring 
forth  before  all  nations."  But  neither  of 
these  growths  is  produced  in  a  day.  Each 
must  have  its  growing  season.  Nature 
does  not  spring  from  snowbanks  to  rose- 
beds  at  a  single  bound.  Even  in  lands 
where  the  succession  of  the  seasons  is 
most  clearly  marked  no  one  can  tell  pre- 
cisely the  hour  when  winter  ends  and 
spring  begins.  More  than  once  have  I 
seen  spring  at  the  front  while  winter 
lingered  still  at  the  rear  of  my  Canadian 
home.  The  lawn  with  the  southern  ex- 
11 


146  CHRIST  BY  THE 

posure  was  already  bright  with  greening 
grass  while  the  brown  earth  at  the  back 
lay  shivering  under  pools  of  snow-water. 
And  I  have  found  a  similar  condition  in 
my  soul.  That,  too,  has  Its  southern  ex- 
posure where  the  light  of  God  falls  warm 
and  bright.  There  some  little  growths 
appear  to  show  that  spring  has  come. 
But  it  has  also  its  shadowed  places  over 
which  "the  winds  from  unsunned  spaces 
blow,"  and  where  the  frosts  still  linger. 
These  inner  areas  of  shadow  and  of  chill 
seem  sometimes  to  mock  my  hope.  And 
yet,  as  surely  as  I  know  in  later  March, 
that  the  whole  Continent  is  moving  towards 
the  springtime  and  the  harvest,  so  surely 
do  I  know  that  my  whole  being  Is  moving 
towards  a  fairer  and  more  fruitful  time. 
We  need  not  be  discouraged  when  the 
spiritual  growth  is  slow.  Sin  binds  the 
soul  in  stronger  chains  than  ice-bands 
bind  the  earth.  But  these  bands  are  to 
be  broken  one  by  one.  From  seed  to 
bud,  from  bud  to  flower  and  fruit ;  that 
is  God's  order.  In  the  realm  of  spiritual 
graces,  righteousness  is  the  bud,  praise 
the  incense  from  the  full-blown  flower. 
In  God's  good  time  it  shall  be  perfected. 

Jesus    Avas    a    patient    Avalter     for    the 
harvest.     It  was  a  great  joy  to  Him  when 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  147 

a  wondrously  quick  growth  gave  Him  tlic 
early  Samaritan  ingathering.  But  it  did 
not  spoil  Him  for  patient  waiting  upon 
other  seed  which  He  had  sown  and  which 
was  long  in  coming  to  its  harvest-time. 
The  disciples  were  often  impatient.  They 
would  have  Him  force  the  hands  of  the 
clock  around  to  make  it  strike  the  hour 
of  triumph-song.  But  He  waited  for  the 
seconds  to  tick  out  the  minutes  and  the 
minutes  to  make  up  the  hours.  In  their 
impatient  moments  He  would  tell  them 
of  the  "  Afterwards  "  in  which  their  own 
understanding  of  spiritual  things  would 
ripen  and  in  which  His  kingdom  should 
come  to  manifestation  in  the  world. 

Prophets,  patriots,  and  reformers  still 
find  it  tiresome  waiting  for  the  harvest. 
Reforms  come  with  exasperating  slowness. 
In  England  the  power  of  the  liquor  traffic 
has  not  yet  been  broken.  The  slum  is 
persistent.  At  one  end  of  the  social 
system  we  have  vast  and  ever-increasing 
wealth,  while  at  the  other  end  we  see 
infinite  poverty  and  wretchedness.  Opium 
still  curses  China,  and  a  procrustean  system 
of  caste  still  maims  and  tortures  India. 
Russia  is  choked  black  by  the  hand  of  politi- 
cal tyranny,  while  Germany  is  hard-ridden 
by  militarism.    America  is  led  handcuffed  by 


148  CHRIST  BY  THE 

the  trusts.  The  golden  age  long  promised 
seems  far  away.  Not  half  the  population 
of  the  world  is  as  yet  even  nominally 
Christian.  It  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered 
at  that  pessimists  and  unbelievers  flout 
the  Church  and  pronounce  Christianity 
a  failure.  But  Christ's  disciples  should 
not  lose  heart.  Measuring  forward  to 
the  ideal  state  of  things,  we  have  still  a 
long  way  to  travel.  But  measuring  back 
to  the  conditions  in  ancient  Rome  and 
Antioch  and  Babylon,  we  can  see  that  we 
have  come  a  long  way  through  the  wilder- 
ness. It  is  the  principle  of  the  harvest 
that  must  steady  us  in  our  working  and 
our  waiting.  The  very  discontent  with 
imperfect  conditions,  so  active  in  our  time, 
is  a  sign  that  the  good  seed  is  stirring  in 
the  soil.  If  the  soil  were  lying  fallow, 
we  should  not  witness  the  reformatory 
movements  of  the  day.  The  seed  is  growing, 
but  we  cannot  force  the  growth  over  wide 
areas.  It  has  many  difficulties  of  soil  to 
contend  with.  It  has  to  deal  with  the 
shallowness  of  human  minds  and  the  per- 
versity of  human  wills.  You  cannot 
cleanse  East  London  as  you  would  drain 
a  bog.  In  the  one  case  you  may  dig 
your  trenches,  put  in  your  piping,  and 
have  an  end  of  it.     But  you  must  consult 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  149 

the  slums  before  you  can  abolish  them. 
You  must  grow  in  them  new  crops  of 
ideas,  new  attitudes  towards  life.  It  takes 
generations  to  do  that.  "  Behold,  the 
sower  went  forth  to  sow." 

3. 

The  Groioth  of  the  Seed  in  the  Soil  pictures 
for  us  the  Noiseless  Working  of  ChiHsfs 
Life  in  the  Souls  of  Men. 

Seeds  do  not  explode  in  the  soil.  We 
never  hear  a  bud  burst.  We  are  not 
wakened  in  the  morning  by  any  tumult 
of  blossoming  roses.  Yet  the  force  which 
unfolds  the  rose  and  opens  the  heart  of 
the  lily  is  the  same  as  that  which  split 
Mont  Pelee  and  burst  Vesuvius  and  laid 
the  cities  of  San  Francisco  and  Kingston 
in  ruins.  Force  may  be  boisterous  when 
it  works  destructively,  but  when  it  works 
constructively  it  is  mainly  silent.  Occa- 
sionally in  a  forest  one  is  startled  by  the 
sudden  crash  of  some  gigantic  tree  that 
falls  shrieking  to  its  death.  But  forest- 
building  is  silent  work.  It  proceeds  with- 
out disturbing  the  slumbers  of  the  lightest 
sleepers  of  the  woods.  It  startles  neither 
bird  in  nest  nor  beast  in  lair.  The  mighty 
work  by  which  the  royal  oaks  and  lordly 


150  CHRIST  BY  THE 

pines  are  lifted  towards  the  skies  is  done 
in  stillness  unbroken  and  profound. 

The  vital  process  is  not  different  in  the 
realm  of  grace.  It  is  true  that  religious 
conversions  are  frequently  attended  by 
violent  emotional  disturbances.  In  his 
"Varieties  of  Religious  Experiences,"  Pro- 
fessor James  has  a  chapter  on  conversion 
which  records  remarkable  instances  of  this 
sort.  One  tells  of  his  conversion  in  this 
way :  "  Every  time  I  would  call  on  God, 
something  like  a  man's  hand  would 
strangle  me  by  choking.  ...  As  often  as 
I  would  pray,  that  unseen  hand  was  felt 
on  my  throat,  and  my  breath  squeezed 
off.  Finally  something  said :  "  Venture 
on  the  Atonement,  for  you  will  die  anyway 
if  you  don't."  So  I  made  one  final  struggle 
to  call  on  God  for  mercy,  with  the  same 
choking  and  strangling,  determined  to 
finish  the  sentence  of  prayer  for  mercy, 
if  I  did  strangle  and  die,  and  the  last  I 
remember  that  time  was  falling  back  on 
the  ground  with  the  same  unseen  hand 
on  my  throat.  I  don't  know  how  long 
I  lay  there  or  what  was  going  on.  When 
I  came  to  myself  there  was  a  crowd 
around  me  praising  God.  The  very 
heavens  seemed  to  open  and  pour  down 
rays  of  light  and  glory.     Not  for  a  moment 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  151 

only,  but  all  day  and  night,  floods  of  light 
and  glory  seemed  to  pour  through  my 
soul,  and  oh,  how  I  was  changed !  and 
everything  became  new."  Instances  like 
this  have  interest  for  the  psychologist, 
but  they  have  practically  no  evangelical 
significance.  The  fact  remains  that  the 
seed  of  the  kingdom  works  quietly  in  the 
soul.  In  each  of  the  cases  recorded  by 
Professor  James  it  is  to  be  noted  that 
when  the  word  of  the  gospel  became 
established  in  the  soul  it  produced  tran- 
quillity. Preparatory  influences  create  dis- 
turbance. To  clear  the  soil  of  "  choking  " 
thorns  requires  vigorous  hacking  at  the 
bushes  and  mighty  pulling  at  the  roots. 
It  takes  loud  blasting  to  shatter  the  rock. 
But  these  operations  are  for  the  opening 
of  the  soil  to  the  seed.  Once  the  seed  is 
in  it  works  in  silence.  Demons  may  tear 
a  man  and  come  forth  from  him  with 
loud  cries ;  but  the  Holy  Spirit  enters 
with  calm,  sweet  peace.  There  may  be 
tumult  raised  by  squawking  birds  of  prey 
that  peck  the  soul  and  fight  each  other 
in  efforts  to  steal  the  seed ;  but  when 
the  seed  is  covered  in  the  ground  the 
tumult  ceases.  The  norm  of  spiritual 
growth  is  to  be  found  in  the  religious 
experiences  of  children  reared  in  Christian 


152  CHRIST  BY  THE 

homes.  In  the  child-soul  the  reign  of  the 
Spirit  announces  itself  as  silently  as  the 
dawn  and  as  sweetly  as  the  blushing  of 
a  rose.  Beyond  the  period  of  childhood 
we  have  to  deal  with  the  clearing  of  the 
soil  before  we  can  get  to  the  sowing  of 
the  seed. 

4. 

The  Sower  of  the  Seed  is  also  the  Tiller  of 
the  Soil. 

One  charm  of  agriculture  consists  in 
the  transformations  which  may  be  wrought 
upon  the  face  of  nature.  A  field  is  not 
a  fixity.  It  is  susceptible  of  culture. 
There  is  a  field  beneath  the  field  to  be 
reached  and  reaped.  Nor  is  a  human  life  a 
fixed  thing,  but  something  that  can  be  made 
over  and  over  by  the  Master's  hand  into 
ever-increasing  richness  and  potency.  The 
unproductive  soils  of  which  Christ  spoke 
were  not  always  to  remain  unproductive. 
He  has  spades  for  the  hard-trodden  way- 
side places  in  our  hearts.  He  has  sharp 
and  piercing  instruments  to  break  up  the 
crusts  which  form  upon  our  souls.  See 
how  He  has  broken  through  the  prejudices 
of  men  and  nations !  The  Roman  Empire 
was  all  encrusted  with   prejudices  antago- 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  153 

nistic  to  the  gospel,  but  Christ  worked 
His  way  in.  The  crust  of  India  and 
of  China  is  being  broken  up  to-day. 
Christ  has  also  drills  and  dynamite  for 
the  blasting  of  the  ledges  of  rock  which 
oppose  the  progress  of  His  kingdom. 
This  is  not  the  devil's  world  ;  it  is  Christ's 
world.  Convulsions  which  startle  and 
confuse  one  generation  are  seen  by  the 
next  to  be  the  strange  work  of  the  Lord 
and  to  result  in  open  doors  for  the  entrance 
of  the  gospel.  And  Christ  can  uproot  the 
thorns  however  tenaciously  they  grip  the 
soul.  The  Cross,  once  it  pierces  the  soul, 
gets  such  leverage  on  the  roots  of  care 
and  worldliness  that  it  extracts  them  to 
their  finest  tips. 

Christ  has  vast  harvests  to  reap  from 
the  yet  unproductive  portions  of  the  great 
world-field.  In  every  nation  He  is  plough- 
ing furrows  from  which  the  angels  shall 
bind  bright  sheaves. 


CHRIST  BY  THE   SEA  OF  GALILEE 
(^Continued) 


"  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  treasord  frfd  In  a. 
field  :  the  which  when  a  man  hath  found,  he  hldeth,  and 
for  joy  thereof  goeth  and  selleth  all  that  he  hath,  and 
buyeth  that  field. 

Again,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  a  merchant- 
man seeking  goodly  pearls  :  who,  when  he  hath  found 
one  pearl  of  great  price,  went  and  sold  all  that  he  had, 
and  bought  it." — Matthew  xiii.  44-46. 


CHAPTER  XI 

CHBIST  BY  THE  SEA  OF  GALILEE   (continued) 

THE    PARABLE    OP    THE    HIDDEN     TREASURE 
AND   THE  PEERLESS  PEARL 

1, 

These  Parables  suggest  that  in  Writing  our 
Invoice  of  Life  toe  should  give  due  Heed 
to  the  Matter  of  CoTuparative  Values. 

The  treasure  and  the  pearl  both  repre- 
sent concentrated  wealth.  The  hidden 
treasure  was  worth  more  than  the  field 
in  which  it  was  found.  The  pearl  ex- 
ceeded in  value  the  entire  collection  of 
jewels  which  the  merchantman  had  pre- 
viously made.  If,  as  some  have  thought, 
the  active  personality  in  these  parables 
is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  then  the  treasure 
and  the  pearl  is  man.  The  estimate  of 
man's  value  set  forth  by  the  parables,  in 
this    interpretation    of    them,   harmonizes 

357 


158  CHRIST  BY  THE 

completely  with  the  value  which  Christ, 
elsewhere  in  His  teachings,  puts  upon 
him.  He  tells  us  that  He  laid  aside  the 
glory  which  He  had  with  the  Father 
before  the  world  was,  in  order  that  He 
might  come  to  earth  to  seek  and  to  save 
that  which  was  lost.  He  teaches  us  that 
it  is  more  profitable  to  save  a  human  soul 
than  to  gain  the  whole  world.  To  win 
this  treasure  He  gave  His  life  as  a  ransom. 
We  have  been  redeemed,  not  with  corrup- 
tible things,  as  silver  or  gold,  but  with 
His  own  precious  blood.  The  crown-jewels 
of  heaven,  in  all  their  massed  magnificence, 
would  look  poor  and  mean  beside  the 
treasure  which  He  poured  out  upon  the 
hard  counter  of  Calvary  for  the  purchase 
of  the  pearl  of  mankind's  love-loyalty. 
Among  all  the  broad  fields  of  the  universe 
there  was  none  which  He  so  coveted  as 
the  one  in  which  the  precious  spiritual 
possibilities  of  man  lay  buried.  No  world 
held  any  pearl  which  so  fascinated  Him 
as  that  pearl  which  He  saw  gleaming  in 
the  hand  of  the  black  prince  of  this  world. 
Nowhere  has  man  as  man  been  estimated  at 
so  high  a  value  as  in  the  gospel  of  Christ. 
When  Christ  came  into  the  world,  scarcely 
anything  was  held  so  cheaply  as  man. 
When  the  slave-markets  were  glutted  the 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  159 

price  of  a  man  would  often  fall  below  that 
of  a  sheep.  Warriors  and  emperors,  philo- 
sophers and  priests  had  entered  into  an 
unholy  conspiracy  to  write  man's  value 
down.  Christ  wrote  it  up ;  nor,  since  His 
day,  has  it  ever  touched  so  low  a  point  as 
that  at  which  He  found  it. 

The  other  interpretation  of  these  para- 
bles, and  the  one  which  best  accords  with 
their  structure,  makes  man  the  quester 
and  Christ,  in  the  richness  of  His  grace, 
the  treasure  and  the  pearl.  Vast  as  man's 
value  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven  may  be, 
the  value  of  the  kingdom  to  man  must  be 
greater  still.  On  Christ's  head  are  "  many 
crowns."  Had  mankind  been  lost  forever 
from  the  fellowship  of  God,  the  loss  to 
deity,  we  must  believe,  would  have  been 
enormous.  Otherwise  we  cannot  explain 
the  lavish  expenditure  which  has  been 
made  for  our  recovery.  Yet  heaven  would 
still  have  been  a  world  of  glory.  God 
and  His  Christ  would  have  continued  rich 
beyond  our  imaginings  in  their  fellowship 
with  each  other  and  with  unfallen,  created 
spirits.  But  man  would  have  been  beg- 
gared to  all  eternity.  The  loss  to  him 
would  have  been  utterly  ruinous.  To  add 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  the  spiritual 
possessions  of  man,  which  is  done  through 


160  CHRIST  BY  THE 

union  with  Christ,  is  to  redeem  his  soul 
from  destruction  and  to  crown  him  with 
glory  and  honour.  The  kingdom  of  heaven 
means  more  for  man's  enrichment  of  life 
than  to  endow  him  with  all  the  worlds 
in  space.  For  it  adds  to  him  the  world  of 
truth,  the  world  of  holiness,  the  world 
of  love,  the  world  of  beauty,  and  the  world  of 
peace.  He  who  seeks  first  the  kingdom 
of  God  and  His  righteousness,  finds  that 
all  other  things  of  real  and  lasting  value 
are  added  unto  him.  The  values  of  the 
kingdom  of  grace  constitute  the  superla- 
tive dowry  of  the  human  soul.  Possessing 
these,  the  soul  is  "  rich  towards  God." 
Lacking  the  wealth  which  grace  bestows, 
we  are  victims  of  a  pitiable  impoverish- 
ment :  "  Wretched,  and  miserable,  and  poor, 
and  blind,  and  naked."  In  the  administra- 
tion of  our  life  we  should  give  due  heed 
to  the  matter  of  comparative  values. 

2. 

The  Parables  suggest  that  the  Wealth  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  awaits  us  in  Forms 
immediately  applicable  to  our  Life-needs. 

When  Jesus  spoke  of  "  treasure  hid  in 
a  field,"  He  was  thinking  of  a  secreted 
pot  of  money.     It  was  gold  coin,  probably, 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  161 

that  the  ploughman  found.  It  was  a 
common  custom  for  men  in  the  East  to 
convert  their  wealth  into  gold  and  bury 
it.  Opportunities  for  profitable  investment 
were  comparatively  rare  in  those  days. 
And  wealth  exposed  to  view  attracted 
the  cupidity  of  rapacious  rulers  and  ex- 
tortionate tax-gatherers.  Moreover,  the 
insecurity  of  property,  due  to  frequent 
wars  and  the  roving  of  predatory  bands, 
added  a  further  inducement  for  men  of 
wealth  to  secret  their  possessions.  When, 
therefore,  the  ploughman  came  upon  a 
box  of  buried  treasure,  he  had  at  hand  a 
form  of  wealth  upon  which  he  could  im- 
mediately realise  in  the  markets  of  the 
world. 

An  equally  convenient  form  in  which 
to  concentrate  values  was  to  purchase 
jewels.  These,  also,  were  easily  negotiable. 
To  this  day  many  Jews  carry  a  large 
proportion  of  their  wealth  in  precious 
stones.  The  memory  of  centuries  of 
persecution,  spoliation,  and  banishments, 
prompts  them  to  hold  their  riches  in 
readily  transportable  forms. 

Among  all  the  jewels  of  the  world  the 

most  perfect  emblem   of  Christ's   grace   is 

the   pearl.     When  it  comes    to    the  hand 

of    man   the  pearl    is    already  a    finished 

12 


162  CHRIST  BY  THE 

product.  No  work  of  man  can  enhance 
its  value.  It  is  not  like  that  with  the 
diamond.  The  value  of  the  diamond  is 
vastly  heightened  by  manipulation.  It  is 
mined  in  a  crude  state  and  needs  to  be 
cut  and  ground.  Before  its  sleeping 
splendours  can  be  wakened,  it  must  go 
upon  the  lapidary's  wheel.  The  facets 
which  break  the  sunlight  into  rippling 
iridescence  represent  a  superadded  grace 
of  human  handiwork.  But  upon  the  pearl 
no  man  lifts  up  a  graving-tool.  Fresh- 
plucked  from  its  shell,  it  is  already  a  perfect 
thing.  It  has  been  antecedently  wrought 
into  consummate  worth  and  beauty,  in  dim, 
green  depths  of  ocean.  Divine  grace,  like 
the  pearl,  needs  not  to  be  manipulated 
but  appropriated.  It  is  bestowed  upon 
us  in  a  finished  state.  It  was  wrought 
into  superlative  completeness  in  the  oceanic 
depths  of  God's  holy  love.  The  sinner  who 
accepts  it  by  simple  faith  is  instantaneously 
possessed  of  the  potentialities  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  He  kneels  a  pauper,  he 
stands  up  a  prince.  Or,  reverting  to  the 
former  parable,  we  may  say  that  the 
gold  wherewith  Christ  dowers  the  soul  is 
minted  gold.  Any  attempt  to  raise  the 
value  of  this  currency  by  mixing  it  with 
merit  of  our  own  is  an  impertinence.     It 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  163 

degrades  the  coin  of  the  heavenly  realm. 
The  finished  work  of  Christ  is  the  perfect 
medium  for  the  procurement  of  every 
spiritual  blessing.  "  By  grace  are  ye  saved 
through  faith,  and  that  not  of  yourselves, 
it  is  the  gift  of  God." 

3. 

These  Parables  suggest  the  Tmpartialness  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  and  of  that 
Grace  by  which  it  is  Attained. 

The  gifts  of  the  kingdom  are  bestowed 
without  respect  of  persons.  The  pearl- 
merchant  of  the  parable  may  be  taken 
to  represent  the  habitual  and  absorbed 
truth-seeker.  He  stands  for  the  students 
and  scholars  of  the  world.  The  poet,  the 
philosopher,  the  scientist,  the  historian — 
these  are  all  devoted  questers  after  pearls. 
The  ploughman  represents  the  common 
people,  the  great  mass  of  men  and  women 
who  are  tied  to  a  monotonous  round  of 
humdrum  duties,  and  have  little  or  no 
leisure  or  inclination  to  investigate  sub- 
jects which  lie  apart  from  the  problem 
of  daily  bread.  But  the  ploughman  and 
the  merchant  are  equally  fortunate  in  the 
matter  of  the  kingdom.  The  people  who 
occupy     themselves     with    drudging,    un- 


164  CHRIST  BY  THE 

romantic  tasks  are  as  surely  in  the  way 
of  salvation  as  poets  and  philosophers. 
The  whole  history  of  Christianity  goes  to 
prove  that  God  puts  this  treasure  in  the 
way  of  simple  and  lowly  souls  no  less 
frequently  than  in  the  path  of  the  gifted 
and  the  learned.  Nicodemus  has  no 
advantage  over  the  woman  of  Samaria. 
He  was  a  pearl-seeker ;  she  a  slave,  tread- 
ing the  dry  furrow  of  a  hopeless  life.  A 
blazing  star  in  the  heavens  guided  wise 
men  from  the  East  to  the  house  where 
the  young  child,  Jesus,  lay ;  but  a  choir 
of  angels  announced  the  glad  tidings  to 
the  Judean  shepherds,  who  took  prece- 
dence of  the  Magi  in  opportunity  and 
honour.  At  your  very  feet,  and  in  the 
line  of  dusty  duty,  you  may  find  God's 
all-enriching  grace. 

4. 

These  Parables  unite  in  Accentuating  the 
Fact  that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  may 
come  to  Men  as  the  Result  of  a  Sudden 
and  Joyful  Discovery. 

The  ploughman  was  looking  for  some 
enrichment  from  his  toil,  but  not  for  the 
great  good  fortune  which  so  suddenly  came 
to    him.      He     was     working    for    wages, 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  165 

expecting  no  more  than  the  "  penny  "  from 
his  employer  when  the  day  was  done. 
He  was  not  seeking  treasure-trove,  he  was 
preparing  the  soil  for  a  crop  of  beans. 
When  the  point  of  the  ploughshare  struck 
the  hidden  treasure  chest  an  ugly  jolt 
passed  through  his  frame.  He  was  ready 
to  curse  the  obstruction  which  had 
hindered  his  work  and  dulled  the  point 
of  his  ploughshare.  So  do  we  often 
revolt  against  the  hard  experiences  of 
life,  not  dreaming  that  they  enclose  a 
golden  treasure.  But  when  the  plough- 
man stooped  to  lift  the  obstruction  from 
the  furrow,  lo,  a  fortune  lay  disclosed 
before  his  astonished  gaze. 

The  pearl-merchant,  too,  experienced  a 
genuine  surprise  when  he  first  sighted 
that  queen  of  pearls.  Perhaps  he  came 
upon  it,  awaiting  a  purchaser  in  some 
little  bazaar ;  or,  he  may  have  seen  it 
flashing  in  the  hand  of  the  diver,  fresh 
from  the  sea.  In  either  case  it  was  a 
discovery.  He  had  purchased  many  a 
pearl,  but  never  one  so  large  and  lustrous 
as  this.  A  very  intoxication  of  gladness 
accompanied  the  discovery.  The  parable, 
in  this  suggestion,  is  not  overdrawn. 
Pliny  tells  us  that  Cleopatra  possessed 
two  pearls,  each  of  which  was  valued  at 


166  CHRIST  BY  THE 

what  would  represent  a  fortune  in  our 
money. 

And  it  is  often  thus  that  we  become 
aware  of  the  treasure  hid  in  Christ.  There 
IS  a  sudden  enthralment  of  the  soul  by 
the  glory  of  the  gospel.  In  many  instances 
the  realising  sense  of  infinite  grace 
breaks  upon  the  consciousness  in  instanta- 
neous illumination.  There  is  a  moment 
of  insight,  a  flash  of  intuition,  and  all  the 
life  is  transfigured.  We  should  have  no 
scepticism  concerning  the  genuineness  of 
sudden  conversions. 

For  all  the  best  things  of  life  have  a 
surprise  power  in  them.  Great  paintings 
have  it.  The  picture  which  has  hung 
before  your  eyes  for  years,  if  it  be  a 
good  picture,  one  day  discloses  a  charm 
and  suggests  a  meaning  which  you  had 
not  discerned  before.  The  same  thing  is 
true  of  friendship.  All  our  best  friends 
astonish  us  with  acts  of  devotion  and 
self-sacrifice.  Love  is  always  treating  us 
to  glad  surprises.  The  kingdom  of  love 
is  an  endless  wonderland.  It  is  ever 
bestowing  some  unexpected  grace,  flooding 
us  with  some  unimagined  glory.  Guinevere 
had  always  recognised  the  splendid  man- 
hood of  King  Arthur.  She  knew  him 
as   a    "great  and    gentle   lord,   who    was, 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  1G7 

as  is  the  conscience  of  a  saint  among 
his  warring  senses,  to  his  knights " ;  but 
she  never  suspected  the  depth  and  tender- 
ness of  his  love,  nor  the  boundlessness 
of  his  mercy,  until  he  came  to  her  "  there 
in  the  holy  house  at  Almesbury,"  to  assure 
her  of  his  pardon  and  to  bid  her  meet 
him  "before  high  God." 

And  what  surprises  meet  us  in  the 
gospel  1  We  plough  the  fields  of  Scripture 
in  our  daily  readings  and  reap  in  varying 
harvests  a  resultant  moral  culture.  We 
seek  for  intellectual  enrichment  amid  its 
profusion  of  literary  gems  and  are  re- 
warded with  many  a  precious  pearl  of 
thought.  But  one  day,  in  our  reading 
of  the  gospel,  the  cleaving-point  of  the 
mental  plough  is  suddenly  arrested  by 
what  proves  to  be  a  pot  of  buried  gold. 
Where  many  a  time  before  the  plough 
had  ridden  lightly  through  the  yielding 
loam,  there  is  now  a  strong  arrestment. 
Ploughing  with  a  weight  upon  the  soul, 
we  come  upon  some  hidden  meaning  with 
the  shock  and  thrill  of  unexpected  impact. 
We  stoop,  and  in  the  furrow  at  our  feet 
is  disclosed  a  boundless  treasure.  In  a 
sentence,  we  find  the  gate  of  the  kingdom 
and  all  heaven  lies  within  our  grasp. 

It  was  thus  with  St.  Augustine.     From 


168  CHRIST  BY  THE 

his  youth  he  was  an  eager  seeker  of 
treasure.  Yielding  to  the  impulses  of' 
the  flesh,  he  pursued  delights  that  ap- 
pealed to  his  artistic  or  sensuous  nature, 
sought  distractions  in  objects  pleasing  to 
the  eye,  in  games,  theatres,  or  music,  or 
the  indulgence  of  animal  passion.  Yet, 
tortured  by  the  reproaches  of  conscience, 
he  reaped  no  harvest  of  repose ;  he  only 
gleaned  self-loathing.  In  his  quest  for 
wisdom  and  truth  he  turned  to  the 
Manichees.  For  nine  years  he  wandered 
amid  the  mazes  of  their  speculations,  his 
intellect  subdued  by  their  subtleties,  his 
imagination  charmed  by  their  interpreta- 
tions of  nature.  Here,  again,  he  found 
no  abiding  peace.  But  one  September 
day,  in  a  retired  corner  of  his  garden  in 
Milan,  a  light  from  heaven  shone  upon 
these  words  as  he  read  them  :  "  Not  in 
rioting  and  drunkenness,  not  in  chamber- 
ing and  wantonness,  not  in  strife  and 
envying.  But  put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  make  not  provision  for  the 
flesh  to  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof."  In  that 
moment  he  gained  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
and  the  kingdom  of  heaven  won  a  dis- 
tinguished citizen. 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  169 


5. 


These  Parables  illustrate  for  us  the  Nature 
and  Action  of  Evangelical  Faith. 

Faith  has  in  it  the  quality  of  decisive- 
ness. The  ploughman  and  the  pearl-seeker 
both  acted  upon  the  discoveries  which  they 
made.  In  each  case  there  was  prompt 
and  definite  resolution.  Desire  and  dis- 
covery needed  to  be  supplemented  by 
determination.  And  so  it  is  with  refer- 
ence to  spiritual  treasure.  The  emotional 
experience  of  desire,  followed  by  the 
intellectual  experience  of  discovery,  must 
issue  in  the  volitional  act  of  choice  before 
the  soul  comes  into  actual  possession  of 
the  heavenly  grace.  Faith  is  the  intent 
of  the  heart  plus  the  assent  of  the 
understanding  plus  the  consent  of  the 
will.  Not  by  dream  or  reverie,  not  by 
long  waiting  at  the  wishing-gate  does  the 
kingdom  come.  "The  kingdom  of  heaven 
suffereth  violence  and  the  violent  take  it 
by  force."  Unless  the  discovery  of  oppor- 
tunity beget  in  us  the  holy  violence  of  a 
noble  intensity,  it  wiU  presently  become 
to  us  but  a  tantalising  memory  of  what 
might  have  been. 

Faith  has  in  it  the  quality  of  venture- 


170  CHRIST  BY  THE 

someness.  It  risks  everything  upon  a 
single  act.  The  ship  of  time  glides  swiftly 
past  the  treasure  island  which  the  soul 
descries.  Faith  leaps  overboard,  resolved 
to  sink  or  swim  to  where  the  treasure 
lies.  Men  who  sneer  at  religious  faith  as 
a  weak  and  listless  thing  know  not  its 
essential  characteristics.  Faith  is  heroic. 
It  is  not  "sicklied  o'er  with  the  pale  cast 
of  thought " ;  it  is  ruddy  with  resolution, 
superb  in  noble  daring. 

Faith  has  in  it  the  spirit  of  sacrificial- 
ness.  Ploughman  and  merchantman  sold 
all  that  they  had  in  order  to  possess  the 
treasure  and  the  pearl.  There  is  always 
an  altar  in  Faith's  path.  Sometimes  there 
is  a  cross.  All  choosing  involves  refusing. 
In  some  form  or  other  there  is  a  renounce- 
ment coincident  with  welcoming.  It  may 
be  a  prejudice,  or  a  habit,  or  a  cloying 
companionship,  or  a  besetting  sin,  that 
must  be  surrendered  ;  but  in  any  or  all 
of  these  it  is  the  knifing  of  self-will  that 
marks  the  abandon  of  the  soul  to  the 
recompensing  goodness  of  the  Lord. 

Faith  has  in  it  a  wise  and  splendid 
strategy.  In  every  opportunity  there  is 
a  strategic  element  to  be  reckoned  with. 
Opportunity  means,  literally,  "  off  a 
harbour."    There  is   latent   poetry  in   the 


SEA  OF  GALILEE  171 

word.  Yonder  comes  the  scudding  ship 
adown  the  rocky,  stormswept  coast,  like 
a  frightened  sea-bird  seeking  haven.  The 
wind  is  shrieking  through  the  cordage ; 
the  waves  are  boiling  white  with  yeasty 
foam.  The  ship  is  creaking,  straining, 
groaning,  climbing,  trembling,  as  she 
drives  before  the  gale.  The  watch  is 
at  the  look-out.  Somewhere  in  this 
neighbourhood  there  is  a  gap  in  the 
sea-wall,  through  which  the  ship  may 
thrust  into  safety.  Presently  the  watch- 
man descries  the  opening,  where  a  ribbon 
of  blue  water  points  the  way  to  peaceful 
anchorage  in  a  land-locked  bay.  This  is 
the  moment  of  opportunity.  The  signal 
is  given ;  the  helm  is  thrust  hard  down  ; 
quivering  like  a  living  thing  the  ship 
comes  up  into  the  wind ;  then  with  a 
mighty  plunge  she  takes  the  gap,  threads 
it,  and  glides  to  anchor  in  the  calm 
waters  of  the  bay.  To  have  missed  the 
gap  would  have  meant  the  irretrievable 
loss  of  opportunity. 

The  gospel  of  Christ  sets  before  us  an 
open  door.  It  rings  the  harbour-bell  in- 
viting us  to  anchorage.  Faith  sees  the 
opportunity  and  thrusts  in  to  furl  its 
sails  in  the  heart  of  Immanuel's  land. 


CHRIST  CONCERNING  THINGS  LOST 


"  And  he  spake  unto  them  this  parable,  saying, 
What  man  of  you  having  an  hundred  sheep  .  ,  . 
Or  what  woman  having  ten  pieces  of  silver  .  .  . 
A  certain  man  had  two  sons.  ..." 

— Luke  xv.  3,  4,  8,    11 


CHAPTER  XII 

CHRIST  CONCERNING  THINGS  LOST 

"  r  I  THIS   parable";    not    these    parables. 

-L  The  window  is  one,  though  it  has 
three  panes.  The  clover  is  one,  though 
it  bears  three  leaves.  God  is  one,  though 
manifested  in  three  persons.  The  parable 
is  one,  though  divided  into  three  parts. 

From  this  great  utterance  of  our  Lord 
we  learn  His  thought  and  feeling  con- 
cerning that  which  is  lost. 

1. 

The  Parable  suggests  to  us  Three   Ways  of 
Getting  Lost. 

The  soul  may  get  lost  as  a  sheep  gets 
lost ;  that  is,  through  Heedlessness.  The 
sheep  did  not  intend  to  go  astray.  It 
had    no    quarrel    with     the     shepherd    or 

175 


176  CHRIST  CONCERNING 

with  the  members  of  the  flock.  It  was 
not  bored  by  the  tameness  of  its  sur- 
roundings. It  made  no  wild  dash  for 
liberty.  It  was  through  unheeding  stu- 
pidity that  it  got  lost.  It  did  not  give 
attention  to  its  ways.  It  went  on 
cropping  the  sweet  grasses,  tuft  after 
tuft,  taking  no  note  of  either  shepherd 
or  sheep.  It  was  having  a  good  time  in 
its  own  way,  and  where  it  saw  another 
mouthful  of  grass  it  went  after  that. 
When  the  shepherd  called  the  sheep 
together  to  conduct  them  to  the  fold,  this 
one  was  too  far  off  to  hear. 

And  this  is  part  of  the  story  of  the  way 
in  which  mankind  has  become  lost  in  the 
wilderness  of  sin.  "  We  all,  like  sheep, 
have  gone  astray."  We  find  ourselves  in 
a  world  of  beauty  and  of  pleasure  and  we 
give  ourselves  to  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 
There,  before  us,  gleams  another  joy  and 
we  go  after  that.  It  seems  quite  natural 
and  it  all  looks  very  innocent.  In  the  days 
of  our  youth  we  feel  that  this  is  what  Ufe 
is  for.  And  so  we  run  with  heedless  step. 
We  have  no  quarrel  with  God  ;  we  have  no 
spite  against  humanity ;  we  are  not  dis- 
contented with  our  lot.  We  simply  follow 
our  own  will  and  way,  careless  of  all  else. 
It  is  not  that  young  life  consciously  sets 


THINGS  LOST  177 

its  heart  on  wickedness  or  determines  to 
get  away  from  sight  and  sound  of  God ; 
it  is  that  young  life  does  not  consider. 
It  acts  from  impulse  and  does  not  reflect 
upon  consequences.  It  is  like  the  sheep 
which  unthinkingly  nibbled  the  green 
until  it  became  separated  from  the 
flock's  companionship  and  the  shepherd's 
care. 

The  soul  may  get  lost  as  the  coin  got 
lost ;  that  is,  through  Sluggishness. 

The  coin  had  no  power  of  resistance 
in  it.  It  was  a  lifeless  thing ;  an  inert 
mass.  It  was  a  victim  of  circumstances. 
It  was  the  plaything  of  surrounding  forces. 
While  the  woman  had  it  she  held  it  by 
main  force.  It  was  kept  in  place  among 
other  pieces  of  silver  by  means  of  a  string. 
When  the  string  broke,  gravitation  laid 
hold  upon  it  and  whirled  it  away.  The 
coin  simply  went  where  it  was  carried  and 
remained  where  it  was  left  until  some 
new  force  came  and  lifted  it  again. 

And  this  opens  to  us  another  chapter 
in  the  story  of  lost  souls.  Multitudes  of 
lives  are  ruined  through  lack  of  moral 
force.  They  seem  to  have  no  power  of 
resistance  in  them.  They  are  the  creatures 
of  circumstances,  the  sport  of  whatever 
power  lays  hold  upon  them.  Not  infre- 
13 


178  CHRIST  CONCERNING 

quently  a  flabby  will  accompanies  a  brilliant 
intellect.  Many  a  man  with  mind  as  bright 
as  polished  silver  is  but  a  straw  in  power 
of  self-determination.  Our  great  concern 
for  the  youth  of  each  generation  is  that 
they  shall  have  sufficient  strength  of  will 
to  shape  their  course  according  to  the 
dictates  of  the  understanding.  Half  the 
trouble  of  the  world  is  wrought  because 
young  men  permit  themselves  to  be  over- 
borne by  the  influence  of  bad  companions, 
and  young  women  yield  to  the  blandish- 
ments of  worthless  suitors.  The  most 
precious  things  in  life  are  lost  through 
listlessness.  If  we  could  only  learn  the 
art  of  putting  core  and  pith  into  the  will 
we  should  go  far  to  redeem  the  world  from 
destruction. 

The  soul  may  get  lost  as  the  son  got  lost ; 
that  is  through  Willfulness. 

In  the  case  of  the  prodigal  it  was  not 
a  matter  of  weakness  but  of  depravity. 
Foolishness  and  rascality  were  combined 
in  him.  A  vast  amount  of  sympathy  has 
been  expended  upon  him.  Preachers  have 
lionised  him  and  made  a  hero  of  him.  But 
the  truth  is,  he  was  a  bad  son.  He  had 
no  proper  reverence  or  affection  for  his 
father.  He  had  no  regard  for  his  brother. 
However     inconvenient    it    might    be     to 


THINGS  LOST  179 

convert  his  "  portion  of  goods  "  into  ready 
money,  it  counted  not  with  him  so  long 
as  he  could  finger  the  gold  in  his  own 
purse.  He  was  supremely  selfish  in  all 
his  movements ;  and  he  did  not  have  sense 
enough  to  know  when  he  was  well  off. 
He  chafed  against  the  decent  restraints 
of  home.  He  thought  it  would  be  a  fine 
thing  to  have  a  fling  in  the  big,  free  world. 
He  was  spoiling  for  a  dash  into  Bohemia. 
He  wanted  to  lose  himself,  and  he  succeeded 
too  well. 

No  story  of  the  world's  lost  state  would 
be  complete  without  this  chapter.  We  may 
all  wish  to  be  apologists  for  humanity; 
but  every  misfortune  cannot  be  traced 
either  to  thoughtlessness  or  weakness. 
There  is  such  a  thing  as  innate,  downright 
lawlessness.  Sin  is  something  more  than 
error ;  it  is  wilful  rebellion  against  God. 
Nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  white-washing 
the  ugly  fact  of  human  depravity.  The 
whitewash  peels  off  when  rubbed  against 
the  facts  of  experience.  When  men  tell 
me  that  in  all  my  evil-doing  I  have  been 
blindly  groping  after  God  and  goodness, 
I  know  that  they  have  not  probed  to  the 
root  of  the  matter.  They  are  snap-diag- 
nosticians. It  may  be  very  complimentary 
to  me,  but  I  know  it  is  not  true.     I  know 


180  CHRIST  CONCERNING 

where  and  when  I  consciously  turned  my 
back  to  God  and  walked  away  to  follow 
my  own  devices.  Nor  did  I  expect  to  find 
my  Father  in  "  the  far  country "  towards 
which  I  set  my  steps.  I  was  a  fool,  but 
not  that  sort  of  a  fool.  When  the  appeal 
is  made  to  experience  this  doctrine  of  man 
as  an  inveterate  quester  after  God  turns 
out  to  be  something  less  reliable  than 
moonshine.  Men  deliberately  go  to  the 
devil,  knowing  quite  well  where  they  are 
going.  At  least,  some  men  do.  They  see 
the  good  and  choose  the  evil.  In  many 
an  instance  it  is  not  a  case  of  missing  the 
path  but  of  rejecting  it  after  it  has  been 
discovered.  It  is  this  fact  which  makes 
our  sin  so  black.  At  the  bottom  of  that 
doctrine  which  represents  every  fall  of 
man  as  an  upward  stumbling  into  light, 
there  is  a  latent  scepticism  of  the  power 
of  grace  to  redeem  a  soul  which  has 
deliberately  turned  away  from  God.  It  is 
not  only  false  to  experience,  but  it  robs 
the  gospel  of  its  brightest  glory.  Even  the 
prodigal  got  home  again  and  found  his  joy 
in  his  father's  fellowship. 


THINGS  LOST  181 


2. 

This  Parable  reminds  us  of  Three   Conse- 
quences of  Being  Lost. 

There  is  the  consequence  of  Helpless 
Wretchedness.  A  lost  sheep  is  a  pitiable 
object.  It  is  a  witless  creature.  It  seems 
well-nigh  devoid  of  self-protecting  instincts. 
It  has  no  scent  to  find  the  path  and  no 
strength  or  skill  to  fight.  It  cannot  swim 
in  swift  waters.  It  is  not  cunning  to 
delude  its  enemies.  It  stumbles  on  rocky- 
paths  and  is  torn  by  arresting  thorns. 
In  its  helpless  misery  it  can  only  bleat  and 
bleed.  Its  cries  but  add  to  its  woes,  in- 
creasing the  danger  from  the  prowling  wolf. 

The  soul  that  has  wandered  away  from 
God  finds  itself  in  similar  plight.  It  was 
this  which  filled  the  heart  of  the  Good 
Shepherd  with  compassion  for  the  multi- 
tudes. "  He  saw  them  distressed  and 
scattered,  as  sheep  not  having  a  shepherd." 
The  experience  of  each  generation  of  men 
goes  to  prove  the  helplessness  of  unshep- 
herded  souls.  They  have  neither  the 
power  to  protect  themselves  in  the  wilder- 
ness nor  to  find  the  way  out.  It  is  a 
curious  fact  that  lost  men  travel  in  a  circle. 
They   seem  to   themselves  to   be  going   in 


182  CHRIST  CONCERNING 

a  straight  line,  but  all  the  while  they  are 
veering  round  upon  their  own  tracks.  When 
they  come  upon  these  again  they  are  hope- 
lessly bewildered.  So  it  is  with  mind  and 
heart  when  life  has  lost  its  touch  with  God. 
The  movements  of  the  soul  are  circular 
then  rather  than  onward.  The  author  of 
Ecclesiastes  noted  this  strange,  dark  fact. 
In  his  own  estrangement  from  God  he 
found  his  mind  moving  in  imprisoning 
circles.  He  compared  it  to  the  sun  that 
"ariseth  and  goethdown,  and  hasteth  again 
to  the  place  where  he  arose  " ;  to  the  wind 
"  that  goeth  toward  the  south,  and  turneth 
about  unto  the  north ;  it  turneth  about 
continually  in  its  course,  and  returneth 
again  to  its  circuits";  to  the  rivers  which  are 
taken  from  the  sea  and  return  to  it  again. 
"  All  things  are  full  of  weariness ;  man 
cannot  utter  it :  the  eye  is  not  satisfied  with 
seeing,  nor  the  ear  filled  with  hearing. 
That  which  hath  been  is  that  which  shall 
be  ;  and  that  which  hath  been  done  is  that 
which  shall  be  done ;  and  there  is  no  new 
thing  under  the  sun."  Is  not  that  a  perfect 
picture  of  the  fruitlessness  of  human  effort 
to  find  the  path  of  life  apart  from  the 
direct  leadership  of  God's  Spirit?  Every 
student  of  comparative  religions  must 
recognise  the  striking  likeness.     Through- 


THINGS  LOST  183 

out  the  ages  the  human  mind  has  revolved 
around  the  same  old  themes  in  much  the 
same  old  ways.  Even  that  which  calls 
itself  a  "new"  theology  lacks  in  newness 
no  less  than  in  trueness.  It  is  but  a  new 
masquerade  of  ideas  which  were  old  when 
Paul  was  penning  his  epistles.  The 
essential  principles  of  it  were  as  clearly 
expounded  in  the  ancient  cities  of  India 
as  they  are  in  the  London  of  to-day. 
"  Christian  Science "  claims  to  be  a  new 
thing  in  the  world,  yet  it  is  really  nothing 
more  than  the  re-vamping  of  the  old  shoes 
of  Buddhism.  "That  which  hath  been 
is  that  which  shall  be."  It  is  only  the 
Good  Shepherd  who  can  extricate  us  from 
the  maze.  He  leadeth  in  straight  tracks. 
Nor  is  there  any  peace  for  the  soul  until 
He  comes.  India  with  all  its  metaphysi- 
cal subtleties  and  its  elaborate  religious 
systems  is  pre-eminently  the  land  of  vast 
unrest,  deep  sadness,  and  trembling  fear. 
But  wherever  a  soul  is  lost  from  God, 
whether  it  stand  beneath  the  shadow  of 
a  Christian  cathedral  or  a  pagan  temple, 
it  must  taste  the  bitterness  of  helpless 
wretchedness. 

The  story  of  the  piece  of  silver  reminds 
us  of  another  consequence  of  being  lost : 
the  Penalty  of  Uselessness. 


184  CHRIST  CONCERNING 

Even  when  lost  to  its  owner,  and  whilst 
lying  in  some  dark  and  filthy  corner,  the 
coin  retained  its  original,  intrinsic  value. 
It  was  still  "  a  piece  of  silver."  It  still 
bore  the  stamp  of  royalty.  But  it  was 
lost  from  its  intended  use.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  coin  belonged  to  a 
necklace  of  silver,  and  that  it  may  have 
been  a  wedding  gift  from  her  husband. 
This  would  invest  it  with  a  special  sacred- 
ness  in  her  eyes.  But  whether  the  woman 
valued  it  for  its  purchasing  power  or 
cherished  it  as  a  love-gift  and  a  thing  of 
beauty  wherewith  to  adorn  her  person, 
this  fact  remains :  it  no  longer  served  its 
purpose. 

Valuable  but  useless !  That  seems  a 
strange  thing  to  affirm  of  a  human  life, 
does  it  not?  Yet  it  may  frequently  be 
affirmed  with  truth.  Value  may  remain 
after  use  has  ceased.  The  value  which 
Christ  put  upon  lost  souls  is  past  all 
reckoning  ;  yet  He  distinctly  teaches  that 
the  soul  estranged  from  God  has  ceased 
to  perform  the  functions  for  which  it  was 
created.  There  is  spiritual  substance  in 
it  still;  it  yet  retains  something  of  the 
image  and  superscription  of  the  king. 
The  corroding  influences  of  sin  cannot  eat 
all   values    out  of    the    human    soul.      In 


THINGS  LOST  185 

"the  publicans  and  sinners,"  who  "were 
drawing  near  unto  Him  for  to  hear  Him," 
He  saw  the  gleam  of  precious  metal. 
Recovered  to  their  true  place  in  the  fel- 
lowship of  God,  they  might  still  circulate 
and  shine  for  Him.  But  when  He  spake 
this  parable  unto  them  they  were  lost 
alike  to  place  and  use  in  the  spiritual  king- 
dom. This  is  one  of  the  saddest  conse- 
quences of  breaking  away  from  God — that 
a  bright  and  highly-gifted  life  may  roll 
away  into  some  dark  and  filthy  corner  of 
sensuality  or  selfishness  and  there,  "  in- 
wrapt  tenfold  in  slothful  shame,"  lie 
exiled  from  the  possibility  of  usefulness 
for  which  it  was  designed. 

A  third  consequence  of  being  lost  is  sug- 
gested by  the  story  of  the  prodigal :  Heart- 
breaking Degradation. 

I  think  the  prodigal's  plight  is  all  ex- 
pressed in  this  one  word,  degradation. 
That  he  should  find  himself  without  friends 
in  that  far  country  was  a  degradation  to  one 
so  well-born  and  reared  as  he.  The  smart 
of  the  slight  was  even  harder  to  bear  than 
the  sense  of  loneliness.  That  he  should  be 
sent  to  feed  swine  would  be  accounted  a 
black  disgrace  by  one  who  had  not  con- 
descended to  eat  with  hired  servants 
before.      That    he    should    be    reduced    to 


186  CHRIST  CONCERNING 

starvation  cried  "  shame "  upon  him.  He 
felt  the  indignity  of  it  quite  as  much  as 
he  did  the  pangs  of  hunger.  That  he,  his 
father's  son,  should  "perish  with  hunger" 
while  the  menials  of  his  father's  kitchen 
had  "bread  enough  and  to  spare,"  stung 
him  with  an  infinite  sense  of  degradation. 
The  whole  situation  reminds  us  of  the 
description  which  another  prodigal  gave 
of  his  sorry  plight  when  he  spoke  of  it 
as  a  wallowing  in  "a  horrible  pit "  and 
in  "  miry  clay."  Yes,  there  came  a  day 
when  the  shame  of  it  all  lay  heavy  upon 
his  soul.  He  thought  not  only  of  what 
might  have  been,  but  also  of  what  ought 
to  be  and  what  used  to  be.  He  was 
haunted  by  accusing  voices  out  of  the  past. 
"  A  sorrow's  crown  of  sorrow  is  remem- 
bering happier  things."  With  a  mighty 
longing  in  his  heart  for  redemption  from 
all  this  degradation  he  arose  and  went 
unto  his  father. 

This,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  worst  of  all 
sin's  consequences ;  the  utter  degradation 
of  the  soul.  There  is  fearful  debauchment 
in  the  last  stages  of  sin's  work.  It  sets 
the  soul  among  the  swine-troughs.  It  re- 
duces the  courtier  to  a  slave.  It  strips 
the  purple  from  the  king's  son  and  makes 
of  him  a  slouching  vagabond. 


THINGS  LOST  187 

There  is  no  loss  so  great  as  that  of 
one's  self-respect.  There  is  no  evil  to  be 
compared  with  the  deterioration  of  one's 
spiritual  quality.  The  sinner's  greatest 
penalty  is  being  what  he  is  and  so  far 
from  what  he  should  have  been.  Nothing 
wrings  the  soul  with  such  remorseful 
agony  as  the  consciousness  of  self-corrup- 
tion. All  defeats  may  be  endured  with 
equanimity  while  honour  is  retained.  Men 
have  counted  the  world  well  lost  when  in 
losing  it  they  saved  their  own  integrity. 
But  self-contempt  steeps  the  soul  in  gall 
and  wormwood.  The  bitterest  cry  in  all 
the  world  is  the  cry  of  the  conscience- 
stricken  prodigal,  "  I  have    sinned." 

3. 

The  Parable  suggests  to  us  Heavens  Three- 
fold Quest  for  that  ivhich  is  Lost. 

The  story  of  the  shepherd  who  went  into 
the  wilderness  until  he  found  the  sheep 
that  was  lost  sets  forth  the  quest  of  the 
Christ  for  sinful  men.  He  is  the  good 
Shepherd  who  "  came  to  seek  and  to  save." 
In  bringing  the  lost  soul  back  to  safety 
"  He  layeth  it  on  His  shoulders."  He  takes 
the  whole  burden  of  the  lost  one's  hopeless 
wretchedness  upon  His  own  heart.     It  has 


ISS  CHRIST  CONCERNING 

been  said  that  there  is  no  hint  of  a  doc- 
trine of  Atonement  in  the  story  of  the 
prodigal  son.  But  there  is  more  than  a 
hint  of  atonement  here  in  the  shepherd's 
redeeming  work.  And  because  it  is  here  it 
4oes  not  need  to  be  there.  When  the  great 
Teacher  put  it  here  He  established  it  in  the 
forefront  of  His  doctrine  of  salvation.  It 
is  loudly  affirmed  to-day  that  when  we  get 
"  back  to  Jesus "  we  get  away  from  any 
suggestion  of  atonement  by  blood.  But 
all  the  chemistry  of  criticism  cannot  ex- 
tract the  crimson  from  the  footprints  of 
the  good  shepherd.  "  The  good  shepherd 
layeth  down  his  life  for  the  sheep."  "I 
am  the  good  Shepherd ;  and  I  lay  down 
My  life  for  the  sheep  .  .  .  Therefore  doth 
the  Father  love  Me,  because  I  lay  down 
My  life,  that  I  may  take  it  again.  No 
man  taketh  it  away  from  Me,  but  I  lay  it 
down  of  Myself.  I  have  power  to  lay  it 
down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it  again. 
This  commandment  received  I  from  My 
Father."  In  these  illuminating  words  we 
find  the  red  cord  of  the  doctrine  of  Atone- 
ment which  runs  through  from  the  story 
of  the  recovered  sheep  into  that  of  the 
re-born  son.  To  get  back  to  Jesus  is  to 
find  ourselves  in  the  shadow  of  the  aton- 
ing cross. 


THINGS  LOST  189 

The  story  of  the  search  for  the  lost 
piece  of  silver  associates  itself  with  the 
Holy  Spirit's  quest  for  men.  The  lighting 
of  the  candle  and  the  sweeping  of  the 
house  are  both  suggestive  bits  of  imagery. 
They  correspond  to  the  two-fold  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  flashing  light  into  the 
soul  and  in  striving  with  the  human  will. 
Candle  and  broom  are  His  chosen  imple- 
ments of  work.  Happy  is  the  man  who 
does  not  "  quench "  the  flaming  candle 
which  the  Spirit  brings,  but  welcomes  its 
manifesting  light.  Happy  is  he  who  does 
not  "  resist "  His  necessary  disturbances  in 
clearing  the  dust  away.  Not  always  does 
He  stroke  the  soul  with  pads  of  plush.  The 
litter  may  lie  too  deep  in  the  corners  of 
the  house  for  that.  Harsh  and  irritating 
His  sweeping  must  sometimes  seem,  but  it 
is  well  worth  enduring  for  the  recovery  of 
the  jewel  that  was  lost. 

The  story  of  the  prodigal's  home-com- 
ing speaks  to  us  of  the  Heavenly  Father's 
quest  for  His  lost  children.  "  While  he 
was  yet  a  great  way  off  his  father  saw 
him,  and  was  moved  with  compassion,  and 
ran,  and  fell  on  his  neck,  and  kissed  him." 
This  is  the  evangelical  climax  of  the  story, 
this  swift,  far  run  of  the  father  to  meet 
"  his  weary,   wandering   child."     How  far, 


190     CONCERNING  THINGS  LOST 

may  I  believe,  will  love  divine  run  to  be- 
stow its  welcoming  kiss?  That  will  depend 
upon  my  thought  of  how  far  such  love  can 
see,  and  how  swiftly  it  can  move.  That 
human  love  is  far-sighted  we  know  full 
well,  and  also  that  it  can  outrun  the 
winds.  Could  we  read  the  secrets  of  the 
telegrams  which  flash  across  the  conti- 
nents, and  the  cablegrams  transmitted 
under  oceans,  they  would  tell  of  many  a 
swift,  world-wide  run  of  parental  love  to 
greet  a  home-sick  son.  And  I  must  believe 
that  the  love  of  God  can  see  to  the  very 
ends  of  the  earth,  to  the  utmost  extremity 
of  sin's  far  country.  It  beholds  the  soul's 
first  movements  from  the  swine-troughs, 
and  instantly  is  "present  with  its  aid." 
Love  has  the  finest  eyes  in  the  universe, 
and  its  feet  are  shod  with  lightning. 
While  the  prodigal  wastes  his  substance 
with  riotous  living,  joining  other  prodi- 
gals in  song  and  dance  and  laughter,  love 
weeps  and  bleeds  in  silence.  But  when  the 
famine  comes,  and  the  sounds  of  revelry 
give  place  to  choking  sobs  of  penitential 
grief,  the  welcoming  love  of  God  annihi- 
lates all  distances  and  folds  us  in  its  warm 
embrace. 


CHRIST    AT    THE    FEAST    OF 
TABERNACLES 


"  Now  on  the  last  day,  the  great  day  of  the  feast, 
Jesus  stood  and  cried,  saying,  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him 
come  unto  me,  and  drink." — John  vii.  37. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

CHRIST  AT  THE  FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES 

THE  time,  the  place,  and  all  the  attendant 
circumstances  conspired  to  give  mean- 
ing and  power  to  these  extraordinary  words. 
For  seven  days  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles 
had  been  celebrated.  On  the  seventh  night 
scarcely  any  one  in  or  about  Jerusalem 
thought  of  sleeping.  Throughout  the  whole 
of  that  night  the  Temple  was  a  blaze  of 
illumination.  The  court  was  crowded  with 
men  who  danced  with  lighted  torches  in 
their  hands.  An  orchestra  of  Levites  on 
the  broad  stone  steps  of  the  Temple  accom- 
panied the  dancers  with  various  musical 
instruments.  A  dense  multitude  of  people 
in  front  of  the  Temple,  waving  branches 
of  palm  and  myrtle,  joined  in  the  chorus, 
which  rolled  over  the  city  and  was  taken  up 
in  the  booths  on  the  surrounding  hillsides. 
It  was  an  all-night  celebration  which  must 
have  left  the  people  in  the  morning  thirsty 

14  193 


194  CHRIST  AT  THE 

and  exhausted.  Joy  itself  had  at  last 
become  wearisome.  Doubtless,  too,  the 
water  supply  had  been  considerably  reduced 
by  the  presence  of  the  unusual  multitude 
in  the  city.  And  it  was  in  the  morning 
hours  of  the  eighth  day,  when  faintness  was 
beginning  to  overpower  the  people,  that 
Jesus,  standing  in  the  Temple  court,  lifted 
up  His  clarion  voice  and  cried,  "If  any 
man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  Me  and 
drink." 

In  these  words  Jesus  presents  Himself  to 
men  as  the  Fountain  of  Life.  Here,  again. 
He  claims  the  fulfilment,  in  His  own  person, 
of  great  Messianic  prophecies.  If  Jerusalem 
is  not  awakened  to  the  fact  that  Messiah 
has  come,  it  will  not  be  for  lack  of  bold  and 
definite  announcement.  Each  visit  which 
Jesus  made  to  Jerusalem  is  signalised  by 
some  impressive  deed  of  power  or  some 
startling,  self-descriptive  word,  intended  to 
drill  into  the  national  consciousness  the  fact 
that  the  prophecies  are  hastening  to  fulfil- 
ment and  that  the  hour  of  supreme 
opportunity  has  arrived.  Among  all  His 
words  there  are  none  of  deeper  import  or 
loftier  self-assertion  than  these  in  which  He 
claims  the  power,  from  His  own  resources, 
to  refresh  the  weariness  and  satisfy  the 
thirst  of  men.     He  who  can  prove  Himself 


FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES       195 

to  be  the  Fountain  of  Life  may  well  claim 
to  be  the  Lord  and  Master  of  mankind. 

A  fact  or  two  regarding  the  nature  of  a 
fountain  will  help  U8  in  our  thinking  here. 
In  its  genesis,  a  fountain  is  a  meeting-place 
of  waters,  a  point  to  which  they  gather,  a 
receptacle  into  which  they  flow.  In  its 
action,  a  fountain  is  a  distributing  centre  of 
waters,  a  point  from  which  they  emerge,  a 
source  from  whidi  they  proceed.  To  pro- 
duce a  fountain  there  must  be  both  inflow 
and  outflow.  That  bubbling  spring  in  the 
valley  where  you  have  so  often  bathed  your 
heated  brow  and  quenched  your  burning 
thirst  is  there  because  it  is  perpetually  fed 
from  the  heart  of  the  hill.  Day  and  night 
unceasingly,  through  subterranean  channels, 
cool  waters  are  trickling  into  that  receptacle. 
The  fountain  is  literally  the  offspring  of 
the  hill. 

In  order  to  get  at  the  inmost  meaning  of 
,His  words  we  must  associate  these  ideas 
with  the  person  of  Christ.  Into  Him  has 
been  poured  "the  fullness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily."  It  is  because  He  received  such 
fullness  from  on  high  that  He  is  able  to 
bequeath  His  endless  blessings  unto  men. 
Towards  God  He  is  the  brimmed  receptacle, 
towards  men  He  is  the  distributing  centre 
of  eternal  life. 


196  CHRIST  AT  THE 

It  will  be  profitable  to  note  how  all  the 
characteristics  of  a  fountain  meet  in  Christ, 


1. 


In  Christ  tve  ever  find  the  Fullness  of  a 
Fountain. 

There  is  in  Him  the  Fullness  of  Truth. — 
This  is  continually  manifested  in  His 
speech.  Every  word  of  His  that  has  been 
preserved  has  in  it  the  pulse  of  life  and 
the  accent  of  originality.  There  is  not  one 
dull  line  in  all  the  teachings  of  Jesus.  No 
man  can  point  to  a  platitude  among  His 
utterances.  His  most  casual  word  sparkles 
with  light.  The  matchless  speech  gushes 
from  His  lips  like  jets  from  a  fountain.  In 
His  table-talk,  in  His  street  talk,  in  His  swift 
replies  to  sudden  crafty  questions  shot  at 
Him  by  enemies,  His  language  is,  alike  with 
His  deliberate  and  lengthened  discourses, 
quick  to  its  finest  filaments  with  spirit  and 
with  life.  In  this  quality  He  stands  alone. 
The  most  fontal  mind  that  England  ever 
produced  was  that  of  our  great  Shake- 
speare. Yet  every  student  of  Shakespeare 
knows  that  his  writings  show  disparity. 
Spring-like  as  was  his  intellect,  it  occasion- 
ally gives  evidence  of  a  diminished  stock  of 


FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES       197 

vitalising  ideas.  Even  in  the  writings  of 
St.  Paul,  the  master-mind  of  his  time  and 
one  which  we  believe  to  have  been  specially- 
inspired  from  on  high,  there  are  not  lacking 
traces  of  strain  and  weariness  and  per- 
plexity. But  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  the 
play  of  an  unwearied,  undepleted  fountain. 
The  wonder  grows  upon  us  when  we 
remember  that  the  words  of  this  un- 
schooled Galilean  carpenter  deal  with  the 
prof oundest  problems  that  ever  engaged  the 
human  mind.  He  spoke  of  God,  of  man,  of 
sin,  of  salvation,  of  eternity.  The  greatest 
philosophers  of  the  ages  grow  lean  and 
haggard  wrestling  with  these  great  themes, 
and  even  then  with  but  indifferent  results. 
Jesus  speaks  upon  them  with  consummate 
ease.  His  teaching  is  everywhere  free  from 
the  slightest  hint  of  strain.  And  though 
the  fierce  light  of  criticism  has  been  beating 
upon  them  for  centuries  they  stand  to-day 
incapable  of  revision.  High  above  all  words 
which  have  been  uttered  in  this  world  they 
shine,  by  common  consent,  the  perfect  ex- 
pression of  ultimate  truth. 

There  is  in  Him  the  Fullness  of  Grace. — 
Other  springs  of  love  become  exhausted. 
Other  fountains  of  good- will  run  dry.  The 
most  deeply  affectionate  natures  are  limited 
in  heart-power.     Their  love  will  languish 


198  CHRIST  AT  THE 

under  shock  and  cool  in  frigid  atmospheres. 
In  Christ  love's  fullness  dwells.  His  com- 
passions fail  not.  The  drain  upon  His 
sympathies  in  the  days  of  His  flesh  was 
continuous  and  tremendous.  The  world  to 
Him  was  as  the  daughter  of  the  horse-leech 
crying  "  Give,  give  ! "  Yet  it  was  ever  met 
by  a  full  response.  Even  that  awful  frost 
which  descended  on  Calvary,  when  the 
treachery  of  one  disciple  and  the  desertion 
of  others,  coupled  with  the  mockings  of 
enemies,  drove  the  temperature  about  Him 
down  to  arctic  depths ;  when  even  the  gates 
of  heaven  seemed  to  close  against  Him 
and  He  was  left  for  one  terrible  space  un- 
comforted  of  God,  the  fountain  of  His  grace 
stood  at  the  full.  It  still  pulsed  on,  un- 
diminished. No  drain  could  lower  it,  no  frost 
could  seal  it.  Whilst  His  enemies  mocked 
His  agonies  He  could  pray,  "  Father,  forgive 
them  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 
With  the  heavens  black  and  seemingly 
pitiless  above  Him,  He  could  cry  with 
loving  confidence  and  filial  submissiveness, 
"Father,  into  Thy  hands  I  commend  My 
spirit."  Under  every  circumstance  we 
find  Him  a  fountain  "full  of  grace  and 
truth." 


FEAST  OF.  TABERNACLES       199 

2. 

In  Christ  we  find  the  Flowing  of  a  Fountain. 

Rills  from  that  fountain  have  been 
flowing  now  for  nearly  two  milleniums 
through  the  souls  of  believers.  The 
ascended  Christ  is  the  fountain  in  the 
throne  which  John  beheld  and  from  which 
breaks  forth  "a  river  of  water  of  life, 
bright  as  crystal."  The  attractiveness  of 
the  throne  is  the  fountain  at  the  heart 
of  it  in  the  person  of  the  Lamb.  Every 
throne  ought  to  have  a  fountain  in  it. 
It  should  represent  the  outflow  of  bene- 
ficent influences.  The  fault  of  many  a 
human  throne  has  been  its  lack  of  a 
fountain.  Too  often  the  throne  has  been 
but  a  gilded  cistern  for  the  inflow  of 
tributary  gifts  to  be  greedily  consumed 
by  some  purple-clad  impertinence.  Some- 
times the  case  has  been  even  worse  than 
that.  The  throne  of  Nero  had  a  whirlpool 
in  it,  sucking  everything  into  itself. 
Nothing  was  too  fair,  nothing  too  sacred, 
to  be  sacrificed.  Down  into  its  insatiable 
maw  it  swallowed  the  resources  of  the 
Empire  and  left  the  world  impoverished. 
The  throne  of  Louis  XIV.  had  a  geyser  in 
it.     The  same  may  be  said  of  the  throne  of 


200  CHRIST  AT  THE 

Charles  Stuart.  The  controlling  impulse  in 
these  thrones  was  a  passion  for  display. 
They  were  fountainless  thrones.  And  the 
sober  judgment  of  mankind  has  been  that 
when  the  fountain  dies  out  of  a  throne  it 
is  time  for  the  throne  to  be  pushed  aside. 
But  the  throne  with  the  fountain  in  it 
abides  in  strength.  This  has  made  the 
throne  of  England  so  dear  to  British 
hearts  since  the  day  when  Queen  Victoria 
succeeded  to  the  crown.  She  brought  us 
good,  and  only  good,  through  all  her  days. 
Her  throne  was  a  fountain  of  beneficence 
from  which  pure  streams  flowed  into  the 
nation's  life.  And  the  flow  continues  from 
the  throne  of  her  wise  and  able  and  large- 
hearted  son.  This  is  the  secret  of  his 
popularity  and  power  within  his  own 
realms  and  amid  the  nations  of  the 
earth. 

The  flow  of  a  fountain  guarantees  its 
freshness.  Its  contents  can  never  grow 
stale.  By  virtue  of  its  own  movements, 
by  the  constant  beating  of  its  unwearied 
heart,  the  water  is  renewed  moment  by 
moment.  It  is  reborn  each  instant  from 
the  womb  of  the  earth.  Even  so  the  grace 
and  truth  of  Christ  are  renewed  to  men 
moment  by  moment.  The  grace  which 
saves  the    world    is    reborn    each   instant 


FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES       201 

from   each   heart-beat  of    the  Redeemer's 
life. 

"  Fresh  from  the  throne  of  glory, 
Bright  in  its  crystal  gleam, 
Breaks  forth  the  living  fountain, 
Flows  on  the  living  stream." 


The  love  of  Christ  did  not  spend  itself  in 
a  single  round  of  benevolences.  It  is  the 
mainspring  of  His  endless  activity.  His 
mighty  heart  fills  up  anew  with  loving 
thoughts  each  day  and  hour.  In  Him 
there  is  "grace  for  grace."  That  phrase 
pictures  for  us  the  perennial  upwelling  of 
grace  within  His  heart  to  meet  the  needs 
of  each  new  day.  This  is  our  great  en- 
couragement to  pray.  It  is  not  simply 
the  Christ  of  the  dead  past  with  whom  we 
have  to  do,  but  the  Christ  of  the  living 
present.  His  grace  is  not  to  be  regarded 
as  a  vessel  filled  for  us  long  ages  ago  and 
set  aside  for  us,  but  as  a  spring  gushing 
forth  at  the  moment  of  our  petition.  In 
this  we  find  the  possibility  of  fellowship 
with  Him.     Christ  is 


"  No  fable  old,  nor  mythic  lore. 
Nor  dream  of  bards  and  seers. 
No  dead  fact  stranded  on  the  shore 
Of  the  oblivious  years : 


202  CHRIST  AT  THE 

But  wsuma,  sweet,  tender,  even  yet 
A  present  help  is  He ; 

And  faith  has  still  its  Olivet, 
And  love  its  Galilee." 


3. 

In  Christ  toe  find  the  Functions  of  a 
Fountain. 

These  are  manifold.  A  gushing  fountain 
is  a  thing  of  beauty.  The  landscape  gar- 
dener prizes  it  as  an  ornamental  feature. 
Amidst  the  soft  green  of  velvet  lawns  and 
the  brilliant  hues  of  flowering  plants  it 
stands  as  a  crowning  splendour.  Vast 
sums  are  expended  for  the  erection  of 
fountains  in  the  parks  and  squares  of 
cities  that  they  may  delight  the  eye  with 
their  graceful  spray  and  soothe  the  ear 
with  their  rhythmic  fall.  And  Christ  is 
precious  unto  men  for  His  matchless  moral 
beauty.  The  highest  artistic  genius  of  the 
ages  has  been  consecrated  to  the  depiction 
of  a  face  and  form  correspondent  to  the 
splendours  of  His  soul.  To  millions  of  men 
and  women  Christ  has  ever  been  the  crown- 
ing glory  of  human  history.  They  see  in 
Him  "  the  altogether  lovely  "  One.  In  Him 
humanity  came  to  exquisite  and  consum- 
mate flower. 


FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES       203 

"  Majestic  sweetness  sits  enthroned 
Upon  the  Saviour's  brow ; 
His  head  with  radiant  glories  crown'd, 
His  lips  with  grace  o'erflow." 

As  the  perfection  of  moral  loveliness  Christ 
has  been  the  inspirer  of  the  noblest  ideals 
of  character  and  the  highest  conceptions  of 
service.  To  remove  that  Figure  from  the 
page  of  history  would  mean  the  blotting 
out  of  the  chiefest  charm  from  the  land- 
scape of  our  life. 

But  the  fountain  discharges  a  nobler 
function  than  that  of  ornamentation.  The 
fountain  is  for  refreshment.  To  the  tra- 
veller parched  with  heat  and  ready  to  die 
of  thirst  there  would  be  poor  satisfaction 
in  the  sight  of  fontal  spray,  flashing  into 
iridescence  in  the  sunlight,  or  the  sound 
of  tinkling  drops  falling  with  lyric  note 
upon  silvery  pools,  if  he  could  not  put  his 
lips  to  the  waters  and  drink.  The  sight 
and  the  sound  of  the  fountain  would  be 
maddening.  Pictures  and  music  can  do 
nothing  for  him  that  is  perishing  with 
thirst.  To  such  an  one  the  fountain  would 
be  a  mockery  if  he  could  not  plunge  into 
the  waters  and  drink,  bathing  brow  and 
wrist  in  the  cooling  flood. 

Even  so  the  beauty  of  Christ  would  be 
a  mocking  beauty  if  there  came  from  Him 


204  CHRIST  AT  THE 

no  communications  of  life  and  power  to  the 
soul.  I  can  only  exult  in  His  perfections  as 
I  experience  His  saving  grace.  It  is  to  my 
thirst  He  appeals  more  than  to  my  sense  of 
beauty.  If  He  holds  a  fascination  over  my 
mind,  it  is  because  He  has  wrought  a  satis- 
faction in  my  heart.  He  gives  me  to  drink. 
He  allays  the  fever  of  my  soul.  He  answers 
my  thirst  for  pardon,  for  peace,  for  purity, 
for  knowledge,  for  love.  The  human  soul 
is  the  thirstiest  thing  God  ever  created,  and 
nothing  can  satisfy  it  but  God  Himself. 
The  condition  of  the  inhabitants  of  Jeru- 
salem on  the  morning  of  that  eighth  day 
of  the  feast  accurately  represents  the  con- 
dition of  mankind  after  each  attempt  to 
slake  soul-thirst  by  excitements,  pleasures, 
or  activities.  Though  we  give  our  days 
and  nights  to  religious  ceremonies,  if  we 
are  not  in  vital  touch  with  Christ,  we  are 
nothing  bettered.  The  soul  still  thirsts. 
These  experiments  only  leave  us  with  a 
sense  of  exhaustion  and  with  the  suspicion 
that  the  waters  have  been  lowered  in  the 
pools.  But  to  open  the  heart  to  Christ  is 
to  drink  in  the  water  of  life.  One  cannot 
argue  to  advantage  about  this  matter.  He 
can  only  assert  the  fact  of  his  experience. 
I  know  the  difference  between  sea-water 
and  water  from  a  mountain  spring.     It  is 


FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES       205 

not  by  chemical  analysis  that  I  come  to  the 
knowledge ;  nor  is  it  by  the  sight  of  my 
eyes.  I  detect  the  difference  by  my  taste 
and  the  effects  produced  by  drinking.  I 
have  filled  my  palm  with  water  from  a 
river  hundreds  of  miles  from  where  it 
entered  the  ocean,  and  found  it  salty  to 
the  taste.  By  that  token  I  knew  that  the 
tide  came  up  so  far.  But  I  have  also  found 
springs  of  sweet  water  within  a  stone's 
cast  from  where  the  Atlantic  billows  broke 
upon  the  beach.  For  weeks  together  I 
have  drunk  health  from  such  a  spring, 
^nd  I  knew  that  though  so  near  the 
ocean,  it  was  untainted  with  its  brine. 
Even  so  do  I  know  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  fountain  of  life  and  "the  deep,  sweet 
well  of  love."  I  came  to  Him  with  spiritual 
pulse  beating  low  and  moral  life  relaxed, 
and  He  poured  new  life  into  my  being. 
Nor  have  I  ever  tasted  aught  but  sweet- 
ness in  my  contact  with  Him  from  the 
first  day  even  until  now. 

One  sweltering  day  in  August  I  spent 
an  afternoon  viewing  pottery  in  the  British 
Museum.  Thousands  of  rare  and  beauti- 
ful vessels  were  there,  specimens  of  the 
ceramic  art  of  ancient  and  modern  peoples. 
But  long  before  I  had  reached  the  end  of 
the    display    my    head     grew    dizzy    with 


206         CHRIST  AT  THE  FEAST 

weariness,  and  my  throat  became  parched 
with  thirst.  A  multitude  of  cups  sur- 
rounded me,  cups  which  a  king's  ransom 
could  scarcely  buy.  But,  unfortunately  for 
raie,  they  were  all  empty.  Precious  as  they 
were,  they  offered  nothing  that  could  meet 
my  need.  On  leaving  the  building,  how- 
ever, I  discovered,  in  a  niche  by  the  outer 
door,  a  plain  metal  cup  immersed  in  the 
cool  waters  of  a  drinking  fount.  That  cup 
would  hardly  be  deemed  worthy  of  a  place 
among  the  vessels  I  had  viewed,  but  to  me 
it  was  worth  them  all.  It  was  filled  from 
the  fountain,  and  I  drank  and  was  re- 
freshed. So  do  the  souls  of  men,  weary 
and  thirsty,  turn  from  the  empty  cups  of 
worldly  pleasure  to  find  refreshment  at 
the  fountain  of  Christ's  love.  It  matters 
not  how  plain  the  vessel  from  which  we 
drink,  though  it  be  some  lowly  task  or 
some  undistinguished  service,  or  some  quiet 
hour  of  reflection,  if  only  it  be  filled  from 
the  fountain,  it  becomes  a  cup  of  blessing, 
a  chalice  of  refreshing  and  sustaining 
grace. 


CHRIST  IN  THE  HOME  AT  BETHANY 


'•Now    Jesus    loved    Martha,  and    her    sister,  and 
Lazarus." — John  xi.  6. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

CHRIST  IN  THE  HOME  AT  BETHANY 

IT  was  probably  during  the  last  year  of 
His  life  that  Jesus  formed  the  precious 
friendship  with  this  family  and  became  a 
somewhat  frequent  visitor  in  their  home  at 
Bethany.  They  were  apparently  the  lead- 
ing family  of  the  village.  In  the  affection- 
ate hospitality  of  their  home  the  Master 
tasted  a  deep,  sweet  joy.  It  w^as  the  only 
bit  of  real  home  life  which  He  was  per- 
mitted to  enjoy  during  the  years  of  His 
public  ministry.  It  must  have  been  to  Him 
a  veritable  oasis  in  the  desert  of  those 
homeless  years.  There  He  could  relax  and 
rest.  In  the  society  of  these  devoted 
friends  He  could  experience  *'  the  best  bliss 
that  earth  imparts,"  the  bliss  of  perfect 
human  friendship. 

To  appreciate  how  much  the  privileges 
of  this  home  must  have  meant  to  Him, 
we  need  to  remember  that  these  were  the 

15  209 


210         CHRIST  IN  THE  HOME 

days  when  He  was  consciously  drawing 
near  to  His  cross,  entering  day  by  day 
more  deeply  into  its  shadow  and  its  chill. 
Dr.  George  Matheson,  writing  of  Christ's 
intimacy  with  the  Bethany  family  during 
the  last,  sad  year  of  His  life,  terms  it  "  The 
Union  of  the  Altar  and  the  Hearth."  "  Is 
it  strange,"  he  asks,  "  that  on  His  path  to 
the  altar  He  should  have  lingered  awhile 
by  the  hearth  ? "  No,  it  is  not  strange. 
We  know  that  the  altar  and  the  hearth 
were  inseparably  associated  in  His  heart. 
It  was  in  behalf  of  the  homes  of  the  world 
that  He  endured  the  shame  of  the  cross. 
"Like  the  dew  of  Hermon,  that  cometh 
down  upon  the  mountains  of  Zion,"  the 
grace  of  Calvary  falls  copiously  on  Bethany. 
If  in  the  home  at  Bethany  He  was  warmed 
and  strengthened  for  the  cold,  dark  road 
He  had  to  tread,  richly  has  He  requited  the 
kindness.  From  His  altar-fires  He  has  cast 
into  the  homes  of  unnumbered  multitudes 
the  seeds  of  a  brighter  flame  than  was  ever 
kindled  on  the  hearthstones  of  mankind 
before.  By  His  cross  He  has  for  ever 
sanctified  and  glorified  the  home. 

The  Evangelists  record  two  instances  in 
which  Christ  joined  in  social  festivity  with 
the  Bethany  family.  Each  of  these  brief 
stories  is  an  exquisite  literary  cameo.     In 


AT  BETHANY  211 

the  wealth  of  their  suggestivencss  touching 
the  culture  and  expression  of  friendship 
they  stand  unrivalled  among  the  narratives 
of  the  New  Testament.  On  the  first  of 
these  occasions  Jesus  is  the  guest  of  the 
family  in  their  own  home.  On  the  second 
occasion  He  is  guest  with  the  family  in  the 
home  of  Simon  the  leper.  While  these 
scenes  have  much  in  common  with  each 
other,  they  exhibit  certain  striking  con- 
trasts. On  both  occasions  there  was  a 
display  of  Love's  prodigality.  Martha 
was  responsible  for  the  first,  Mary  for 
the  second.  To  the  casual  reader  it  may 
seem  as  if  the  Master's  attitude  and 
teaching  in  the  one  instance  are  contradic- 
tory to  what  we  find  in  the  other.  For 
while  in  the  first  case  He  remonstrates 
with  Martha  respecting  the  lavish  enter- 
tainment which  she  provides,  in  the  second 
case  He  approves  and  justifies  the  astonish- 
ing profuseness  of  Mary's  act  in  pouring 
upon  His  person  a  whole  flask  of  "  very 
costly"  spikenard.  But  when  we  call  to 
mind  what  had  taken  place  between  these 
two  occasions,  how  He  had  brought  back 
from  death  the  one  whom  they  had  "  loved 
long  since  and  lost  awhile,"  we  shall  see 
that  there  was  a  beautiful  consistency  in 
His  treatment  of  the  devoted  women.     We 


212         CHRIST  IN  THE  HOME 

shall    learn    some     precious     lessons,    too, 
regarding  the  works  and  ways-S)f  love. 

1. 

Jesus  Restraining  Loves  Prodigality. 

The  sisters  have  prepared  a  special 
supper  in  His  honour.  Martha,  the  elder 
and  the  recognised  head  of  the  family,  is 
an  expert  in  matters  pertaining  to  the 
table.  She  has  made  elaborate  prepara- 
tions for  the  meal.  Many  courses  have 
been  arranged.  Other  guests  have  been 
invited  to  meet  Jesus.  She  is  anxious  that 
everything  shall  be  well  served  and  that 
the  supper  shall  be  a  success  from  the 
culinary  point  of  view.  Mary  has  doubt- 
less helped  in  the  preliminary  arrange- 
ments. But  now  the  meal  is  in  progress ; 
the  guests  are  about  the  table  ;  the  hum  of 
conversation  fills  the  room.  Presently, 
however,  the  pleasant  murmur  of  pro- 
miscuous talk  subsides  and  only  one  voice 
breaks  the  silence  of  the  room.  It  is  the 
voice  of  Jesus.  His  wonderful  table-talk 
has  begun  to  flow.  Like  spray  from  a 
perfumed  fountain  it  gushes  from  His  lips, 
fragrant,  musical,  refreshing.  It  is  a  time 
for  rapt  and  reverent  listening,  for  it  is 
known  that  in  moments  like  this  the  jewel- 


AT  BETHANY  213 

case  of  the  Master's  mind  will  be  unclasped 
and  precious  pearls  of  truth  will  be  exposed 
to  view.  We  have  good  reason  for  believ- 
ing that  Jesus  was  never  so  charming  as  in 
these  rare  moments  when,  sitting  at  meat 
amid  a  circle  of  intimate,  trusted  friends, 
He  unreservedly  opened  to  them  the 
treasures  of  His  mind  and  heart. 

At  this  point  of  the  entertainment,  Mary, 
whose  quick  ear  and  sensitive  mind  has 
caught  the  thread  of  His  remarks,  glides 
noiselessly  to  the  couch  whereon,  according 
to  Oriental  custom,  Jesus  is  partially  reclin- 
ing, and  sits  behind  Him  at  His  feet  that 
she  may  better  drink  in  the  refreshment 
of  this  elevating  speech.  The  act  was 
perfectly  modest,  natural,  and  becoming. 
Martha,  too,  would  no  doubt  have  gladly 
listened  had  her  conceptions  of  hospitality 
permitted.  For  she  loved  Jesus  and 
honoured  Him  in  her  soul  no  less  than 
Mary  did.  But  she  was  of  another  tem- 
perament and  cast  of  mind.  Hers  was  a 
more  "  cumbered "  soul.  She  was  more 
conventional,  more  punctilious,  more  con- 
cerned for  perfection  of  practical  detail, 
and  hence  more  anxious  that  her  supper 
should  be  recherche  in  every  respect.  She 
has  yet  other  courses  to  serve.  They  seem 
to  her  essential  as  a  smooth  and  satisfying 


214  CHRIST  IN  THE   HOME 

finish  to  the  meal.  And  something  has 
gone  wrong  with  her  arrangements.  She 
needs  her  sister's  help  for  a  moment  to 
rectify  the  matter.  This  is  a  convenient 
opportunity  to  put  things  right,  now  that 
the  guests  are  hanging  with  such  breath- 
less interest  upon  the  Master's  words.  If 
she  can  but  attract  Mary's  attention  with- 
out the  guests  observing  her,  their  united 
efforts  will  speedily  overtake  the  situation 
and  the  meal  will  be  concluded  with  ^clat. 
But  Mary  is  too  deeply  absorbed  in  the 
conversation  of  Jesus  to  notice  that  there 
is  any  hitch  or  to  observe  the  signs  that 
Martha  is  making.  At  another  time  a 
significant  cough  or  the  rattle  of  a  dish 
would  have  arrested  her  attention.  But 
she  is  fathoms  deep  now  in  spiritual 
musing.  It  is  a  trying  situation  for 
Martha,  no  doubt,  and  it  has  won  for  her 
the  sympathy  of  all  good  cooks  and 
enthusiastic  housewives.  But  Martha's  em- 
barrassment and  trouble  has  probably  and 
her  remonstrance  has  certainly  been  exag- 
gerated through  failure  to  accurately  re- 
produce the  situation  in  the  imagination. 
There  was  no  "  scene."  What  Martha  said 
to  Jesus  was  said  in  a  whisper,  we  may 
be  sure.  She  was  too  much  of  a  lady  to 
break  out  in  a  criticism  of  her  sister  in  the 


AT  BETHANY  215 

hearing  of  the  other  guests.  It  is  distinctly 
stated  that  "  she  came  up  to  Him,  and  said, 
Lord,  dost  Thou  not  care  that  my  sister 
hath  left  me  to  serve  alone  ?  bid  her  there- 
fore that  she  help  me."  There  is  something 
of  irritation,  perhaps  of  petulance  here,  but 
no  flaming  anger.  It  is  as  though  she  said, 
"  Have  you  not  seen  that  I  am  not  getting 
on  well  ?  I  cannot  get  the  '  things '  on  the 
table  as  I  should  like  to  do.  I  am  anxious  for 
your  sake  to  have  everything  go  smoothly. 
Tell  Mary  to  come  and  help  me."  It  was 
simply  the  communication  of  the  fact  of 
her  embarrassment  to  Jesus,  coupled  with 
a  request  that  He  would  wake  Mary  from 
her  dreaming  and  convey  to  her  the  intelli- 
gence that  she  was  wanted.  One  loves  to 
remember  that  Jesus  was  the  sort  of  friend 
and  guest  who  could  be  appealed  to  in  such 
familiar  fashion.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
whole  story  which  so  fully  assures  us  that 
Jesus  was  regarded  as  "  one  of  the  family  " 
as  these  words  which  Martha  spoke  to 
Him.  May  we  not  believe  that  Jesus, 
instead  of  being  vexed  by  them,  was 
profoundly  grateful  for  them  ? 

The  reply  of  Jesus  comes  like  the  cool 
breath  of  morning  air  into  a  close  and 
stuffy  room.  "  Martha,  Martha,"  and  His 
voice  is  very  gentle,  "  thou  art  anxious  and 


216         CHRIST  IN  THE  HOME 

troubled  about  many  things :  only  one 
thing  is  needful :  and  Mary  hath  chosen 
that  good  morsel,  which  shall  not  be  taken 
away  from  her."  The  words  may  be 
paraphrased  like  this :  "  You  are  really 
taking  more  trouble  than  is  necessary. 
You  are  anxious  to  serve  us  with  many 
courses.  Do  you  think  that  hospitality 
consists  in  so  much  serving  ?  In  providing 
many  varieties  of  viands  ?  It  is  a  mistake. 
Hospitality  does  not  demand  so  much  in 
that  way.  The  best  hospitality  tends 
towards  simplicity.  The  essence  of  hospi- 
tality is  the  personal  relation.  The  soul  of 
it  lies  in  sympathetic  friendship.  It  is  an 
atmosphere  created  by  intelligent  affection. 
It  will  care  for  the  comfort  of  the  guest 
but  will  not  concern  itself  for  the  lavish- 
ment  of  luxury.  I,  least  of  all,  require  or 
desire  such  elaborate  attentions.  Only  one 
thing  is  needed  now  to  complete  your 
beautiful  work,  and  that  is  the  restful 
spirit,  a  sense  of  harmony  and  repose  in 
each  other's  society.  You  think  that  Mary 
has  not  been  contributing  her  share  to  the 
demands  of  hospitality.  She  has  really 
contributed  the  choicest  bit  of  all,  the 
daintiest  morsel  of  the  meal.  Her  quiet 
spirit,  her  absorbed  and  sympathetic 
interest    in     My    conversation    has    been 


AT  BETHANY  217 

creating  an  atmosphere  of  harmony  and 
restfulness.  Her  influence  is  like  music, 
sweet  and  low  and  subduing.  So  she  has 
really  made  her  contribution,  and  it  will 
prove  to  be  a  lasting  one.  It  shall  not  be 
taken  away.  It  has  imparted  a  sweetness 
and  a  strength  to  our  hearts  which  will 
long  outlive  the  energy  supplied  by  the 
delicious  food.  Sit  down,  Martha,  and  rest 
with  us  !  We  are  well  served.  If  an  extra 
dish  goes  cold  it  will  not  matter  so  long  as 
our  hearts  are  warm." 

We  may  believe  that  the  meal  was 
finished  leisurely  and  in  a  spirit  of  delight- 
ful fellowship.  Martha,  dear  old  motherly 
soul  that  she  was,  would  sit  down  beside 
Mary,  perhaps  with  her  arm  around  her, 
and  share  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  Master's 
wondrous  speech.  If  anything  further 
should  be  needed  before  they  rise  from 
table,  it  will  be  Mary  who  will  hasten  to 
bring  it  in. 

How  much  more  enjoyable  and  profitable 
the  hospitalities  of  life  would  be  if  all  the 
world  should  lay  to  heart  the  lesson  so 
clearly  taught  in  this  sweet  story !  It 
would  crown  all  our  domestic  feasts  with 
an  exquisite  grace.  And  what  relief  it 
would  bring  to  the  overwrought  and 
anxious  Marthas  of  the  world  !    Hosts  and 


218         CHRIST  IN  THE   HOME 

hostesses  would  still  delight  to  honour 
their  guests  with  the  best  of  entertainment. 
Good  cooking  and  dainty  serving  would 
still  continue  to  be  an  appreciated  art. 
But  we  should  have  a  greater  care  to  give 
ourselves  in  sympathetic  and  intelligent 
friendship  to  our  guests.  We  should  study 
to  enter  into  their  interests,  to  share  their 
joys  and  sorrows,  and  to  refresh  them  with 
a  welcome  into  the  banqueting-room  of 
our  affections. 

But  the  application  of  the  lesson  here 
cannot  be  restricted  to  domestic  hospitali- 
ties. It  has  to  do  with  the  whole  matter 
of  Christian  service.  The  soul  of  the  lesson 
is  religious.  You  can  scarcely  get  a  better 
definition  of  the  Christian  religion  than  that 
of  Friendship  with  Jesus  Christ.  And  this 
friendship  cannot  flourish  unto  full  fruition 
if  denied  the  quiet  hour  of  reflective  and 
receptive  sitting  at  His  feet.  That  friend- 
ship cannot  fully  utter  itself  in  anxious 
activities  and  manifold  ministrations.  It  is 
too  personal  and  spiritual  a  relation  for 
that.  It  requires  frequent  seasons  of  deep 
and  silent  and  calm  communings.  There 
must  be  moments  of  listening  as  well  as 
days  of  serving.  There  must  be  times  of 
gracious  dew-fall  or  the  flower  of  friend- 
ship   will    droop   upon  its    stem.      If  the 


AT  BETHANY  219 

currents  of  our  activities  are  to  be  kept 
keen  and  bright  and  strong  the  pools  of 
our  hearts  must  be  filled  again  and  again 
from  the  fountain  of  wisdom  and  of  love. 

2. 

Jesus  Justifying  Love's  Prodigality. 

"Jesus,  six  days  before  the  passover, 
came  to  Bethany,  where  Lazarus  was, 
which  had  been  dead,  whom  Jesus  raised 
from  the  dead.  There  they  made  him  a 
supper,  and  Martha  served :  but  Lazarus 
was  one  of  them  that  sat  at  the  table  with 
Him." 

This  supper  in  the  house  of  Simon  was 
evidently  given  in  the  honour  of  Jesus 
and  in  commemoratian  of  the  raising  of 
Lazarus.  Martha,  true  to  her  specialty, 
is  again  serving.  She  seems  to  have  had 
a  genius  for  catering  which  was  recognised 
in  the  village  and  utilised  by  her  intimate 
friends.  No  feast  was  thought  to  be  quite 
complete  to  which  she  had  not  given 
suggestion  or  approval.  She  is  taking 
matters  more  calmly  now  than  in  the 
former  instance.  She  has  learned  her 
lesson.  Her  face  is  full  of  light  and  her  eyes 
glow  with  thankfulness  as  she  looks  at 
Jesus  and  at  Lazarus.     But  her  hands  are 


220         CHRIST  IN  THE  HOME 

busy.  She  will  not  overdo  the  entertain- 
ment now,  but  she  will  not  permit  any- 
thing to  be  lacking.  She  is  a  woman  with  a 
genius  apid  a  passion  for  ministration.  She 
will  never  lose  that.  And  she  knows  that 
Jesus  appreciates  it.  This  world  would  be  a 
far  less  comfortable  world  to  live  in  were 
it  not  for  the  guild  of  Martha.  But  Mary, 
also,  has  a  genius  and  a  passion  for  minis- 
tration. Her  specialty,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  for  the  creation  of  "  atmosphere."  This 
was  her  contribution  on  the  former 
occasion.  And  now  again  she  creates  an 
atmosphere  and  such  an  atmosphere  as 
has  filled  the  world  with  its  fragrance. 
"  Mary,  therefore,  took  a  pound  of  ointment 
of  spikenard,  very  costly,  and  anointed 
the  feet  of  Jesus,  and  wiped  His  feet  with 
her  hair  :  and  the  house  was  filled  with  the 
odour   of   the  ointment." 

We  cannot  think  that  either  Martha 
or  Lazarus  would  grudge  the  gift.  They 
would  view  it  with  unqualified  approval. 
Was  it  not  a  thank-offering  for  the  recon- 
struction of  the  family  circle  that  had 
been  broken  by  the  hand  of  Death? 
Lazarus  would  feel  honoured  by  it  more 
than  if  it  had  been  poured  upon  himself. 
Martha's  heart  would  leap  with  pride  and 
gratitude    to    Mary    for  having   conceived 


AT  BETHANY  221 

such  a  happy  thought.  Had  not  the  sisters 
wept  together  in  those  dark  days  when 
the  death-tide  was  bearing  their  beloved 
brother  towards  the  gulf  of  darkness? 
Did  not  their  hearts  break  as  one  heart 
when  they  saw  the  light  go  out  of  his 
eyes  and  the  pulse  cease  in  his  body  ?  Had 
they  not  watched  together,  at  first  with 
hopefulness  and  then  with  increasing 
trepidition,  for  the  coming  of  Jesus  in 
answer  to  their  united  petition  ?  Had  they 
not  afterwards  waited  side  by  side  in 
stony  despair  for  His  belated  appearance  ? 
We  may  be  certain  that  Martha's  heart 
was  blessing  Mary  for  this  beautiful  deed. 
But  there  were  some  in  the  company 
who  looked  upon  the  act  as  one  of  "waste- 
ful and  ridiculous  excess."  To  them  it 
appeared  absurd  in  its  lavishment,  in- 
excusable in  its  prodigality,  "  Why  was 
not  this  ointment  sold  for  three  hundred 
pence,  and  given  to  the  poor  ?  "  We  know 
what  was  behind  that  ill-natured  criticism. 
We  do  not  need  to  dwell  upon  the  con- 
suming avarice  or  the  black  treachery  of 
the  sneak-thief  who  spat  out  that  complaint. 
But  there  may  have  been  others  in  the 
company,  who,  without  any  baseness  in 
their  hearts,  would  regard  the  deed  with 
disfavour.      They  could   scarcely  think  of 


222         CHRIST  IN  THE  HOME 

it  as  other  than  a  vast  and  astonishing 
extravagance.  "  Of  course,"  so  they  might 
say  in  their  hearts,  "  the  ointment  belonged 
to  the  woman  and  she  had  the  right  to 
do  as  she  pleased  with  it.  But  would  it 
not  have  been  wiser  to  have  used  it  more 
sparingly?  A  few  drops,  a  very  few,  of 
nard  so  fragrant  and  refreshing  would 
have  been  amply  sufficient  for  a  single 
application.  Why  did  she  not  shed  these 
few  drops  upon  Him  and  then,  if  she  so 
desired,  present  Him  with  the  remainder 
for  future  use  ?  But  she  has  deluged  Him 
with  it.  She  has  poured  out  the  last  drop. 
And  upon  His  feet !  They  are  fairly 
soaked  with  it.  Has  she  not  made  a  towel 
of  her  hair  and  wiped  His  feet  He  would 
have  experienced  actual  discomfort  from 
the  anointing."  Thus  might  even  friendly 
guests  have  reasoned  if  they  happened  to 
be  lacking  in  imagination. 

And  the  recipient  of  the  lavishment, 
what  has  He  to  say?  He,  who,  a  little 
while  before  had  restrained  Love's  prodi- 
gality ?  May  we  not  expect  that  He  will 
break  out  now  in  protest  ?  The  expendi- 
ture on  the  former  occasion,  though  lavish, 
was  much  less  than  this.  The  value  of 
this  box  of  ointment  would  represent  the 
cost  of  several  suppers,   each   of  them  as 


AT  BETHANY  223 

elaborate  as  that  which  Martha  had  made. 
Each  drop  of  this  spikenard  was  worth  the 
day's  wage  of  a  working  man.  Will  He 
not  therefore  strongly  disapprove  of  this 
extravagance?  No,  not  on  this  occasion. 
He  will  accept  it,  every  drop  of  it ;  accept 
it  unblushingly  and  thankfully.  He  has 
need,  now,  of  some  special  anointing  at 
Love's  hand.  For  He  is  about  to  receive 
the  buffetings  of  hatred  and  of  scorn.  In 
Jerusalem  they  are  waiting  for  Him  that 
they  may  spit  in  His  face,  smite  Him  with 
their  fists,  scourge  Him  with  their  thongs, 
and  nail  His  hands  and  feet  to  a  tree.  He 
will  be  very  glad  to  carry  with  Him  the 
fragrant  memory  of  a  love  that  lavished 
upon  Him  its  choicest  possession.  It  will 
be  as  a  precious  perfume  to  His  thoughts, 
a  refreshing  and  sustaining  balm  for  His 
troubled  spirit.  Hence  His  justification  of 
Mary's  act :  "  Why  trouble  ye  the  woman  ? 
for  she  hath  wrought  a  good  work  upon 
Me.  For  in  that  she  hath  poured  this  oint- 
ment upon  My  body,  she  did  it  to  prepare 
Me  for  burial." 

We  are  not  to  suppose  that  Mary  had 
such  an  intention  in  the  act,  but  He  ascribes 
to  the  act  that  noble  effect.  Mary  did  not 
know  that  He  was  about  to  die.  Had  she 
known   it    her    deed   would    have  been  a 


224         CHRIST  IN  THE  HOME 

sacrifice  of  sorrow.     But  it  was  a  sacrifice 
of  joy.       The    act    was    retrospective,    He 
made  it  prospective.      She  broke  the  box 
upon  Him  in   gratitude  for  the  fact  that 
He   had    broken    the   gates   of   death   and 
brought  her   brother   back.      He  accepted 
it  as   a   strengthening   for    His    own    last 
weariness   and  final   strife.      And    so    her 
love  wrought  better  than  it  knew.     That  is 
Love's  prerogative  when  love  is  pure  and 
selfless.      Love   like    that    can   even   "gild 
refined  gold  "    and    "  paint  the   lily "   and 
"  add  a  hue  unto   the   violet/'      Love  like 
that  can   impart   a   sweetness   which  out- 
perfumes  the  distillations  from  a  thousand 
flowers.     Mary's   love   put  something   into 
the  box  of  ointment  far  more  precious  than 
it   contained   when   it  was   sealed    by   the 
apothecary's  hand.      Love  is  the  alchemist 
of  life.     Love  takes  a  book  that  you  could 
buy   for   half  a  crown,   writes  your  name 
and  its  own  upon  the  fly-leaf,  and  instantly 
that  book  assumes  a  value   in  your   eyes 
above    the    price    of    libraries    bound    in 
morocco.     Love  gives  a  simple  flower,  and 
long   after   it   has   crumbled    into    dust   it 
blossoms  in  the  soul,  while  its  charasteristic 
odour,    wafted    to   you    on    some    passing 
breeze,    awakens    a    train    of    comforting 
reflections. 


AT  BETHANY  225 

And  love  must  sometimes  be  permitted 
to  act  upon  its  impulse,  even  if  that  impulse 
be  towards  prodigality.  It  must  some- 
times be  allowed  to  consider  the  deeds 
rather  than  the  needs  of  the  recipient. 
When  another  life  has  touched  and 
crowned  us  with  a  distinguishing  grace ; 
when  it  has  brought  to  us  a  fine  and  per- 
manent enthusiasm ;  when  it  has  restored 
to  us  a  joy  which  we  had  lost  beyond  all 
hope  of  recovery ;  then  love  cannot  find  an 
adequate  expression  in  common  and  calcu- 
lating ways.  Thank-offerings  for  special 
mercies  belong  to  a  class  by  themselves. 
In  giving  these  we  seek  for  something  that 
can  speak  the  language  of  the  heart  with 
a  distinctive  accent.  In  such  rare  hours 
we  may  give  the  sense  of  gratitude  its  way 
without  restraint.  To  fetter  it  with  the 
customary  considerations  of  frugality, 
economy,  and  utility  would  stifle  it.  Such 
gratitude  cannot  calculate  in  cool,  utili- 
tarian fashion.  It  finds  its  fitting  sphere 
of  action  in  realms  which  "the  world's 
coarse  thumb  and  finger  fail  to  plumb." 
It  longs  for  abandon.  It  is  a  lark  that 
can  only  carol  on  the  wing.  To  cage 
it  up  amid  dry,  mathematical  estimates  of 
proportions  and  percentages  is  to  quench 
its  song  within  its  breast.  Christ  would 
16 


226  CHRIST  AT  BETHANY 

uncage  it ;  He  would  give  it  liberty  and 
range  of  wing.  Deeds  like  Mary's  are 
essentially  sacramental.  The  Master  ap- 
proves them  as  deeds  of  monumental 
goodness. 

Nor  do  we  need  to  fear  that  deeds  like 
this  will  take  anything  away,  either  from 
the  desire  or  the  ability  to  respond  to  the 
pressing  necessities  of  the  world's  un- 
fortunates. No  charitable  institution  will 
suffer  in  its  funds  because  grateful  love 
permits  itself  an  occasional  lavishment  in 
the  form  of  a  thank-offering.  It  is  not  the 
hand  which  sheds  the  spikenard  upon  the 
peerless  friend  that  will  deny  a  charity  to 
the  friendless  poor.  The  sudden  swelling 
of  the  tide  of  gratitude,  sweeping  like  a 
torrent  through  the  soul,  deepens  and 
clears  the  channel  for  charity's  continuous 
and  normal  flow.  Mary  gives  her  guineas 
to  the  poor  whilst  Judas  steals  the  pennies 
which  parsimony  puts  into  the  bag. 


CHRIST    ON   THE    MOUNT    OF 
TRANSFIGURATION 


•'  And  he  was  transfigured  before  them :  and  his  face 
did  shine  as  the  sun,  and  his  garments  became  white  as 
the  light." — Matthew  xvii.  2. 


CHAPTER  XV 

CHEIST   ON    THE    MOUNT    OF    TBANS- 
FIGUEATION 

1. 

The  Transfiguration  manifested  the  Glory  of 
Christ's  Inherent  Godhood. 

You  are  sitting  in  your  room  of  a 
winter  evening  with  a  lamp  burning  on 
the  table  at  your  side.  The  wick  of  the 
lamp  is  turned  low  ;  but  even  thus  it  is 
cheery  and  companionable.  The  flame, 
though  suppressed,  glows  steadily  there  in 
its  socket,  suffusing  the  enveloping  crystal 
with  its  mild  radiancy.  Though  shadows 
lurk  about  you  the  general  gloom  is  some- 
what relieved  by  that  point  of  mellow  light. 
Suddenly,  now,  by  a  movement  of  your 
hand,  you  turn  the  wick  up  high.  The 
swift-mounting  flame  effects  an  instan- 
taneous transfiguration.     Your  lamp  shines 


230        CHRIST  ON  THE  MOUNT 

now  with  a  new  resplendency.  The 
potentialities  of  the  brighter  light  were 
present  all  the  while,  in  wick  and  oil  and 
flame  and  crystal,  but  they  had  not  been 
evoked.  Now,  however,  they  are  suddenly 
brought  to  manifestation.  Jesus  Christ 
during  his  life  on  earth  was  God's  great 
lamp  shining  here  in  this  dark  world,  but 
with  the  wick  of  His  essential  deity  turned 
low.  Even  thus  His  radiancy  was  unique. 
The  suffusing  splendour  of  that  inner  light 
marked  Him  out  as  Time's  most  lustrous 
personality.  The  flame  of  Godhood,  though 
suppressed,  glowed  there  within  the  white 
crystal  of  His  enveloping  humanity  and 
steadily  manifested  a  glory,  "Glory  as  of 
the  only  begotten  from  the  Father,  full 
of  grace  and  truth."  But  that  night  upon 
the  Holy  Mount,  His  person  was  suddenly 
charged  with  enhanced  effulgence.  There, 
for  one  transcendent  hour.  His  deity  was, 
so  to  speak,  turned  on  full  flame.  It 
flashed  forth  in  radiancy  unrestrained. 
The  temple  of  His  body  blazed  with  the 
dazzling  splendours  of  spiritual  incandes- 
cence. He  was  transfigured  before  them. 
"His  face  did  shine  as  the  sun,  and  His 
garments  became  white  and  glistering, 
exceeding  white,  so  as  no  fuller  on  earth 
can  whiten  them." 


OF  TRANSFIGURATION  231 

The  potentialities  of  transfiguring  glory 
were  ever  present  to  Christ's  spirit.  He  had 
that  touch  with  God  which  needed  but  the 
turn  of  the  prayer-key  to  bring  upon  Him 
the  forces  and  splendours  of  the  heavenly 
world  in  full-flooding  tide.  His  person  was 
like  a  building  wired  for  electric  power  and 
light.  Into  such  a  building  you  may  bring 
the  desired  voltage  instantaneously.  You 
may  flood  it  with  light  in  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye.  On  many  an  occasion  Jesus  had 
drawn  upon  Heaven  for  power — power 
to  heal  disease,  to  subdue  evil  spirits,  to 
control  the  forces  of  nature,  to  raise  the 
dead.  Never  was  a  call  of  His  denied.  His 
confidence  in  the  certainty  of  Heaven's 
response  to  any  appeal  which  He  might 
make  was  the  secret  of  His  assurance  in 
fronting  a  burdened  humanity  with  His 
imperial  "  Come  unto  Me."  Whatever  load 
He  might  desire  to  lift  from  the  lives  of 
men,  He  knew  that  power  would  be 
granted  for  the  lifting.  He  had  power  on 
earth  to  forgive  sins.  Had  He  desired  to 
fling  His  enemies  aside  from  His  path  and 
hurl  the  cross  away.  He  could  have  done  it. 
"  Thinkest  thou  that  I  cannot  beseech  My 
Father,  and  He  shall  even  now  send  Me 
more  than  twelve  legions  of  angels?"  There 
speaks    a    consciousness   that  feels   about 


232        CHRIST  ON  THE  MOUNT 

it  the  pulse-beat  of  omnipotence.  What 
seventy-two  thousand  angel-power  may- 
mean  in  terms  of  conquering  energy  we 
cannot  tell ;  but  it  is  evident  that  to  Jesus 
it  meant  a  force  sufficient  to  overwhelm 
the  military  force  of  Jerusalem,  yea,  and 
of  Rome,  with  swift  and  crushing  defeat. 
He  had  also  drawn  upon  Heaven  for  light 
— light  to  guide  and  light  to  warn.  The 
words  He  spake  were  from  the  Father,  and 
they  glowed  to  their  last  syllable  with 
illuminating  splendour.  There  were  occa- 
sions when  the  inner  light  shone  through 
His  flesh  and  put  an  awe-inspiring  radiancy 
upon  His  brow.  That  day  in  Nazareth, 
when  He  passed  unscathed  through  the 
angry  crowd  which  had  gathered  to  cast 
Him  from  the  cliff,  was  one  of  these.  The 
day  when  He  drove  the  hucksters  from 
the  Temple  area  was  another.  But  this 
night  upon  the  mount  he  makes  a  special 
call  for  radiancy.  He  sends  in  His  prayer- 
signal  to  the  central  station  in  glory  for 
one  transcendent  illumination,  and  lo, 
whilst  He  prays,  the  transfiguring  splen- 
dour comes. 

"In  the  old  days  on  Sinai 

Were  tempests  and  dark  cloud, 
And  God  was  there  in  lightning, 
Thunder  and  trumpet  loud; 


OF  TRANSFIGURATION  233 

Upon  a  fairer  mountain, 

Where  pure  snows  lay  congealed, 
Stood  Jesus  in  His  Glory, 

The  very  God  revealed." 


2. 

The  Transfiguration  bore  Witness  to  Christ's 
Ideally  Perfect  Manhood. 

Had  there  been  the  slightest  flaw  in  the 
human  life  of  Jesus  He  could  not  have 
endured  the  sudden  voltage  which  sur- 
charged Him  there  upon  the  mount.  A 
cracked  crystal  cannot  bear  the  shock  of 
sudden,  assaulting  heat.  It  might  stand 
the  lighter  test  of  a  low-burning  wick,  but 
the  full-forced  flame  would  find  the  flaw 
and  shatter  the  glass.  Had  Christ  been 
less  than  God's  perfect  man  He  would  have 
died  upon  the  mount.  The  shock  of  the 
sudden  glory  would  have  slain  Him.  It 
would  have  been  to  Him  a  consuming  fire. 
The  fact  that  He  could  endure  that  terrific 
test  pronounces  the  ultimate  verdict  upon 
the  quality  of  His  life.  The  transfiguration 
means  that  deity,  blazing  up  in  Jesus,  in 
instantaneous,  full  effulgence,  found  His 
manhood  a  flawless  crystal.  So  perfectly 
had  His  human  life  been  moulded  to  the 
Father's  will  that  He  was  able  to  receive, 


234        CHRIST  ON  THE  MOUNT 

without  strain,  the  full  flame  of  Godhood. 
So  purely  had  He  lived,  so  completely  had 
He  obeyed  the  truth,  that  even  the  flash- 
ing through  Him  of  that  light  ineffable 
before  which  the  seraphim  veil  their  faces, 
disclosed  in  Him  no  speck  or  stain. 

The  witnessing  splendour  was  accom- 
panied by  a  witnessing  voice :  "  This  is 
My  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased ;  hear  ye  Him."  He  had  heard 
that  voice  at  the  beginning  of  His 
ministry,  and  it  assured  Him  of  His  Mes- 
sianic call.  It  was  God's  stamp  of  approval 
affixed  to  the  silent  years  of  Nazareth.  It 
must  have  been  an  infinite  encouragement 
for  Him  to  hear  it  again  now  that  He  was 
drawing  near  the  end.  It  was  the  sentinel 
cry,  "  All's  well,"  from  Him  who  kept  watch 
above.  It  told  Him  that  His  life,  which 
had  been  tested  again  and  again  and  found 
to  be  in  order,  has  now  passed  through  the 
final  and  most  searching  test  triumphantly. 
He  knew  Himself  to  be  the  Lamb  of  God, 
designated  for  sacrificial  offering ;  now  He 
receives  witness  to  the  fact  that,  having 
come  within  sight  of  the  altar.  He  is 
regarded  as  still  clean,  unblemished,  fit 
for  offering.  In  the  attesting  word  which 
rang  out  on  the  midnight,  the  Father  put 
upon    His    Son    the     temple-brand    which 


OF  TRANSFIGURATION         235 

declared  Him  qualified  to  make  atonement 
for  the  sin  of  the  world. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  sacrificial  mission 
upon  which  Christ  was  bent,  the  trans- 
figuration would  have  issued  in  transla- 
tion. From  the  glory  of  the  mountain  He 
would  have  ascended  into  heaven  to  resume 
the  glory  that  He  had  with  the  Father 
before  the  world  was  ;  for  the  experience 
there  marked  the  consummation  of  His 
personal  human  perfectness.  There  and 
then  His  manhood  burst  into  brilliant 
flower.  Had  He  not  been  in  the  world 
for  redemptive  purposes,  God  would  have 
plucked  the  flower  then  and  laid  it  in  His 
bosom. 

3. 

The  Transfiguration  cheered  Christ  onward 
in  the  Path  of  His  Saviourhood. 

It  gave  a  heartening  exhibition  of 
Heaven's  interest  in  the  goal  which  He 
had  set  before  Him,  and  in  the  means  by 
which  it  was  to  be  attained.  "Behold, 
there  talked  with  Him  two  men,  which 
were  Moses  and  Elijah  ;  who  appeared  in 
glory,  and  spake  of  His  decease  which  He 
was  about  to  accomplish  at  Jerusalem." 
The  presence  of  these  men,  one  repre- 
sentative    of     the      law,    the      other     of 


236        CHRIST  ON  THE  MOUNT 

the  prophets,  was  deeply  significant.  It 
pointed  to  the  fact  that  Christ  was  suc- 
cessor to  both  the  legislators  and  prophets 
of  Israel.  It  indicated  that  the  work  of 
the  past  was  waiting  upon  the  sacrificial 
work  of  Christ  for  its  completion.  It 
showed  that  Moses  and  Elijah  were  in 
full  accord  with  the  new  economy  about 
to  be  established.  The  old  order  was 
changing,  "giving  place  to  new,"  and  the 
foremost  to  hail  the  change  and  greet 
Him  who  brought  it  in  were  the  very 
men  under  whom  the  old  order  had  been 
established.  It  is  abundantly  clear  that 
they  viewed  their  own  work  as  pre- 
liminary. It  was  but  the  building  of  the 
scaffolding  for  the  abiding  temple  which 
was  afterwards  to  be  erected.  Now  that 
they  behold  the  temple  drawing  near  com- 
pletion, they  appear  to  cheer  the  builder  to 
His  final  task.  The  sympathetic  interest 
of  these  visitors  must  have  been  a  gracious 
anointing  for  the  heart  of  Jesus.  He  had 
been  grieved  by  the  dulness  of  the  twelve, 
pained  by  the  fickleness  of  the  multitude, 
stung  by  the  hostility  of  the  rulers.  There 
was  not  a  soul  on  the  earth  who  was  able 
at  that  moment  to  grasp  and  appreciate 
the  ultimate  purpose  of  His  life.  But 
Moses  and    Elijah    understood.      In    their 


OF  TRANSFIGURATION         237 

brief  company  He  tasted  the  joy  of  in- 
telligent sympathy.  "They  spake  of  His 
exodus  which  He  was  about  to  accomplish  " 
at  Jerusalem.  They  associated  the  work 
of  the  cross,  to  which  He  was  drawing 
nigh,  with  the  exodus  from  Egypt.  That 
exodus  was  the  outstanding  event  of 
Jewish  history.  No  other  event  had  ever 
bulked  so  largely  in  the  imagination  and 
memory  of  the  nation.  It  marked  the 
birthday  of  Jewish  national  life.  Until 
the  exodus  the  Israelites  were  political 
nobodies.  For  generations  they  were  but 
a  wandering  tribe  of  herdmen,  and  after 
that,  for  centuries,  a  race  of  slaves.  But 
the  exodus  gave  them  a  new  consciousness 
and  a  new  dignity  before  the  world.  It 
generated  in  them  the  ennobling  sense  of 
nationhood;  it  vitalised  them  with  a  new 
and  splendid  hope.  From  the  day  of  the 
exodus  they  felt  themselves  to  be  a  people 
with  a  bright  and  beckoning  future.  The 
spirit  of  prophecy  was  stirred.  No  sooner 
had  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea  closed  upon 
their  oppressors  than  Moses  and  the  child- 
ren of  Israel  sang  a  song  unto  the  Lord, 
a  song  that  voiced  their  new-born  aspira- 
tions and  convictions.  Dreams  of  conquest 
and  of  Empire  find  expression  in  that  song. 
"Thou  in  Thy  mercy  hast  led  forth  the 


238        CHRIST  ON  THE  MOUNT 

people  which  Thou  hast  redeemed:  Thou 
hast  guided  them  in  Thy  strength  to  Thy 
holy  habitation.  The  people  shall  hear, 
and  be  afraid :  sorrow  shall  take  hold 
upon  the  inhabitants  of  Palestine.  Then 
the  Dukes  of  Edom  shall  be  amazed ;  the 
mighty  men  of  Moab,  trembling  shall  take 
hold  upon  them :  all  the  inhabitants  of 
Canaan  shall  melt  away.  Fear  and  dread 
shall  fall  upon  them;  by  the  greatness  of 
Thine  arm  they  shall  be  still  as  a  stone  ; 
till  Thy  people  pass  over,  O  Lord,  till  the 
people  pass  over  which  Thou  hast  pur- 
chased." And  so  it  came  to  pass  that 
from  generation  to  generation  Jehovah 
was  proclaimed  as  "  The  Lord  thy  God 
which  brought  thee  up  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage." 

Against  this  background,  how  magnifi- 
cently the  cross  of  Christ  looms  up !  It 
was  to  be  for  Him  and  for  all  His 
followers  the  way  of  exodus.  For  Him 
the  way  of  exodus  from  a  state  of  humi- 
liation to  the  glory  of  the  mediatorial 
throne.  For  them  the  way  of  exodus 
from  bondage  into  liberty,  from  sin  into 
holiness,  from  death  into  life.  In  the 
judgment  of  Moses  and  Elijah,  that  issue 
which  seemed  to  the  disciples  an  intoler- 
able  ignominy  and  a  crushing   defeat  wa.« 


OF  TRANSFIGURATION         239 

a  splendid  triumph.  Moses  and  Elijah 
greeted  the  Christ  upon  the  mount  as  the 
leader  of  Time's  supremely  magnificent 
movement,  a  movement  which  would  es- 
tablish the  kingdom  of  God  for  ever  in 
the  hearts  of  men.  •'  So  the  mount  of 
transfiguration  looks  toward  the  mount 
of  sacrifice,  lights  up  Calvary,  and  lays 
a  wreath  upon  the  cross." 

4. 

The     Transfiguration     provided     Powerful 
Incentives  for   Unwavering  Discipleship. 

At  first  the  three  disciples  who  were  with 
the  Lord  upon  the  mount  were  dazed  by 
the  brilliancy  of  the  scene.  While  the 
Master  was  at  prayer  they  slept.  Awak- 
ing, "  they  saw  His  glory,  and  the  two 
men  that  stood  with  Him."  It  would  be 
strange  indeed  if  they  had  understood  the 
meaning  of  what  was  taking  place.  It  is 
evident  that  the  mind  of  Peter  was  con- 
fused, or  he  would  not  have  made  the 
grotesque  suggestion  to  build  there  three 
booths  for  Jesus  and  His  celestial  visitors. 
But  even  as  he  spoke  the  cloud  over- 
shadowed them,  Moses  and  Elijah  dis- 
appeared, the  Voice  from  heaven  bade 
them  hearken  unto  Jesus,  and  they  were 


240        CHRIST  ON  THE  MOUNT 

left  with  Him  alone.  Then  they  learned 
the  great  truth  that  He  was  to  be  all  in 
all  to  them.  They  saw  that  He  was  their 
one  link  with  heaven.  Henceforth  He 
would  be  to  them,  as  He  had  never  been 
before,  "  the  hope  of  glory." 

And  thus  they  were  enabled  to  take 
something  of  the  mountain  with  them 
down  into  the  plain.  It  is  ever  the  mis- 
sion of  the  mountain  to  minister  to  the 
plain  ;  it  was  not  made  to  tower  aloft  in 
cold,  proud  isolation.  The  Alps  were  not 
uphfted  merely  to  be  gazed  at  and  admired 
by  pleasure-seeking  tourists,  but  to  feed  the 
Rhine  and  to  nourish  the  teeming  cities 
upon  its  banks.  Heights  of  ecstasy  and 
peaks  of  rapture,  to  which  we  may  ascend, 
are  intended  to  impart  a  finer  spirit  for 
the  tasks  of  the  common  day.  We  are  to 
make  all  things  according  to  the  pattern 
shown  us  in  the  mount.  The  highest  rule 
of  life  is  to  endeavour  to  be  true  to  the 
visions  and  the  voices  vouchsafed  us  on 
the  heights.  Our  mountain-top  experi- 
ences are  the  grand  rallying-points  of  life. 
We  are  not  to  recline  upon  them  and  sip 
their  nectar  "careless  of  mankind."  We 
touch  them  for  power  to  heal  the 
demonised  life  below.  The  vision  of  the 
mount  is  to  be  translated  into  energy  for 


OF   TRANSFIGURATION  241 

service  on  the  plain.  Else  we  shall  be 
blasted  by  the  very  splendour  that  was 
granted  us  for  blessing.  From  the  moun- 
tain and  the  glory  we  may  go  with  Jesus 
through  the  valleys  with  their  shadows  to 
the  crown  of  life. 


lY 


®b?  Cdwsbam  |!rcss, 

UNWIN  BROTHERS,  LEUlTEn, 
WOKINa  &SD  IiOKDON. 


BS2421  .F85 
Concerning  the  Christ 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Libr, 


1    1012  00033  5648 


